


Hocus Pocus

by tintatalk



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, baekhyun having the hots for chanyo, fake dating au, who doesn't love fake dating au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-18 04:05:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7298887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tintatalk/pseuds/tintatalk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Baekhyun thought he was a good person - he's given to charity; he's walked a few elderly people across the street; he even gave the 400 dollars he found on the side of the road to the police that one time. In terms of good deeds, Baekhyun's pretty set. Or that's what he thought until he was forced to be his worst enemy, Park Chanyeol's fake boyfriend. Now he's pretty sure he's committed a gruesome crime in a past life and this is purgatory. It doesn't help that the tall idiot is kind of attractive either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the idea

**Author's Note:**

> I changed the summary because I didn't like it. Oops!!!

There was one thing in this world that Baekhyun hated more than cucumbers and that was Park Chanyeol.

Baekhyun couldn’t put into words the hatred he felt for the other boy. From his long gangly limbs and weird monkey ears to his obnoxious booming laughter and loud personality, everything about Park Chanyeol ignited a flame of hatred in him. It was always there,always simmering under the surface, causing his spine to crawl at the thought of the tall boy. Maybe his hatred began in an unorthodox way, a mere incident in middle school that ended with Baekhyun in detention and Chanyeol scot-free, but that didn't mean it was trivial, okay? In Baekhyun's eyes, the fact that his hatred stood the test of time only served to validate just how strong it was. This wasn't just some ordinary school-boy 'you stole my lunch money' hate. 

Nonetheless, he digressed.

He hated Park Chanyeol and that was it.

However, since he loved Kyungsoo and cared about finding the other a potential partner, he just had to put aside his feelings and work with Chanyeol regardless.

 

The day was hot, almost unbearably so. The heat whistled through the university like a bullet train, fast and somewhat nauseating. Baekhyun’s first lecture had only ended twenty minutes ago, and it was already nearing lunch time, hunger pains creeping up on him.

The cafeteria he often frequented was not only popular but in the middle of the campus, shaded by only a sprinkling of trees and other shrubbery. During the cooler months, it was a nice change to wait amidst the scenery and stare at the lush green that adorned the campus. Now however, the weather was anything but nice, almost stifling in its intensity. He stood in queue, unashamedly waving his sweat-dripping t-shirt to generate some kind of wind, even if the few gusts were hot.

He had been standing for only a few minutes, watching impatiently as the line dwindled down slowly, when he caught sight of a tall boy walking a few metres away from him. The image of Park Chanyeol caused him to instantly curl his lip in disgust, the boy’s fashion sense appalling to say the least. He watched him walk through the grounds, sighing morosely when the thought of Kyungsoo flashed in the back of his mind. Inwardly, he tried to put away all feelings of dislike and called out to the other.

“Oi Park.”

Chanyeol stopped and turned at the call, eyes blinking in surprise before catching sight of Baekhyun and focusing on the small figure in front of him. Baekhyun scowled a little at the display and the fact that he could almost physically feel their height difference –not like he let it bother him. Not at all. Not one bit.

“I need to talk to you about something,” Baekhyun tried to keep his tone clipped as he stared at the long-limbed giant in front of him.

Chanyeol had a backpack strewn around an arm, snapback placed daintily on his head. He looked shocked to be called by Baekhyun, facial expression guarded as if expecting to be attacked in mid-daylight. Just the expression on his face made Baekhyun want to hit him, but he curbed the urge away, trying to maintain pure innocence.

“What do you want?” Chanyeol asked warily as he walked towards Baekhyun. He held his backpack tight against his chest like he was afraid the smaller boy was going to steal it away.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes at the scene. It wasn’t even designer. 

For a few seconds, the older of the two nearly forgot that he was waiting in line for his lunch, and when the boy in front of him moved closer towards the stand, he stumbled awkwardly, making sure he did not lose his spot. Chanyeol moved with him, and waited politely for him to continue. Baekhyun wanted to sneer. Of _course_ Chanyeol would pretend to be nice like Baekhyun was the immature one out of the two. Whatever.

“Your friend. Kai. Jongin. Whatever,” Baekhyun nodded his head sharply, looking up at the taller boy whose eyebrows were still furrowed together. “He got a girlfriend?”

Chanyeol’s expression changed instantly, his crossed eyebrows suddenly shooting up. “What, you interested?”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, fingering the edge of his wallet. It wasn’t like Kim Jongin was _ugly_ , because he definitely was not. The dancer’s proportions were long but thick, sculptured in a way that even Baekhyun could appreciate. He was definitely attractive and had a gorgeous smile to boot. But after catching Kyungsoo of all people staring at him a few times in the library, Baekhyun decided to leave the younger man alone.

Kyungsoo liking someone was not an anomaly, the other having a number of ‘ _friends_ ’ over the years Baekhyun had been close with him. Rather, it was the fact that he hadn’t really shown interest in anyone since his breakup with Yixing nearly a year ago that made Baekhyun want to do something. If this Jongin guy was the answer, then Baekhyun would walk the Nile to help Kyungsoo get him.

Baekhyun would also apparently look past his hate for Park Chanyeol to try and get Kyungsoo a chance at happiness. Wasn’t he such a great friend?

“No, I was just asking.”

“Well, no. He doesn’t,” Chanyeol answered simply, loosening his death grip on his backpack like he was suddenly less afraid of Baekhyun stealing the slightly fraying thing. “Why?”

Baekhyun was just one person away from ordering and he turned towards the front, ignoring Chanyeol as he ordered his daily bento box and peach ice tea. He took the cold drink from the cashier, instantly placing it on the side of his neck. The cat-like hiss he let out would’ve been embarrassing if it wasn’t 200 degrees and his shirt wasn’t drenched from sweat anyway.

He continued to hold the bottle against his neck as he picked up his food and walked towards Chanyeol, the icy coolness a welcomed blessing. Baekhyun ignored the other’s gaze that lingered on the bottle and subsequently his neck. If Chanyeol wanted a cold beverage in the heat, then he’d have to buy one himself.

“Well,” Baekhyun said finally when they reached an area to sit at. “How is his homo-level? He cool with dating a guy?”

If Baekhyun was being honest, he was quite surprised that Chanyeol had followed him without any complaint. That being said, the other was hardly ever as impolite to Baekhyun as Baekhyun was to him, even if the older tried to antagonise him on the regular. It wasn't like Chanyeol was kind to him though, treating him with disinterest almost like Baekhyun wasn't worthy of his attention. This tended to infuriate Baekhyun even further, oftentimes having to calm himself down so he wouldn't 'accidentally'hit the boy.

The fact that Chanyeol came today without any dissent was almost too surprising and he kinda wanted to interrogate him because of it.

_Why’d you follow me here, huh? What’s your problem?_

But that was kinda injurious to the whole, ‘wanting Chanyeol to cooperate’ thing, plus he was the one that started the whole conversation anyway…

“I thought you said you weren’t interested in him?” Chanyeol replied, deadpanned.

The tree behind their spot provided quite a bit of shade compared to the bright sunny field, but it did nothing to stop the stagnant heat that continued to pervade the grounds. Baekhyun’s eyes focused on a drop of sweat that lingered by the base of Chanyeol’s chin, wet surface distracting. Perhaps, even too distracting, Baekhyun thought a little angrily, grabbing his ice tea and taking a big gulp of it. He put the bottle back down on the table harshly, face lighting up in manic glee. He made express caution not to look at the tall boy's jaw.

_Betcha want some cold drink too, huh asshole._

“I’m not interested in him,” Baekhyun stressed with a sigh, fiddling with his drink. “So what is it? Would he fuck a guy? What about kiss a guy? Have you seen him kissing a few males in your time?”

Chanyeol didn’t look amused as Baekhyun rambled on with a little more bite in his tone than he initially started off with. Hey, it wasn’t Baekhyun’s fault that Chanyeol just got on his nerves and made him more edgy than usual.

“Why do you want to know, Byun?” Chanyeol said stonily.

Baekhyun only briefly observed the tiny drop of sweat fall from Chanyeol’s chin and jawline, flicking his gaze back up to other’s eyes when he caught the sight of a muscled forearm.

“I have a friend,” Baekhyun relented, holding the ice tea bottle in his hands and flicking it from side to side. He twisted his fingers in the air, explaining further. “He seems interested in Kai, and I was wondering if maybe Kai would be interested in him.”

Chanyeol stared at him for a few seconds before he nodded his head once, his posture relaxing.

“Okay. I was wondering why you approached me.”

The sentence probably would’ve been a joke on anyone else, but Chanyeol still seemed really apprehensive of Baekhyun. Fair enough, Baekhyun thought as he stared at the other. He wasn’t exactly the nicest to Chanyeol. Okay screw that, he was _horrible_ to Chanyeol and was inwardly glad that the other didn’t walk away as soon as he heard Baekhyun call out.

“Who is this friend of yours?”

“Is Kai gay or not?”

Baekhyun shot back. He glared the taller man down, not wanting to seem like he was easily pushed-over, especially by Chanyeol of all people. The younger met his gaze for a few seconds, brown eyes rather pretty in the current lighting. Baekhyun mentally hit himself at the thought. Nonetheless it was true, he rationalised, trying to keep his gaze from slipping towards the other’s wet shirt. The black material was sticking almost obscenely to Chanyeol’s pecs, the shirt practically a body-suit in disguise. It didn’t help that the younger man seemed to be incredibly filled out, arms and shoulders large enough to practically engulf Baekhyun. Terrible.

 _God damn him for wearing a black t-shirt on a day like this. He should’ve known better_.

 Chanyeol remained indifferent, and Baekhyun sighed, steeling himself to respond before the other eventually opened his mouth.

“He… doesn’t mind guys or girls.”

Baekhyun nodded once at the response, his mind flittering over to the few times he had seen Kai in the library. There were no tell-tale stereotypes Baekhyun could observe from the other’s behaviour, but somehow it wasn’t really all that surprising that Kai liked the same sex.

“So, who is it?” Chanyeol asked, rather bright-eyed compared to his prior expression. He sat forward, reaching his large arms out to rest on the table.

Baekhyun followed the movement, eyes widening slightly at the sight of the strong arms. His gaze landed on even larger hands, slight thick and especially _long_ , and he immediately averted his eyes up further to land somewhere safer than on those gigantic things. Even the man's collarbone, the simple and innocent collarbone, turned out to be a terrible idea when he saw another slick drop of sweat pile in the deep groove. He watched with wide eyes when the droplet succumbed to gravity and immediately slid down his skin, past a— _was his nipple hard?_

God. It was almost too much for Baekhyun to bear. With the mental strength of an athlete, and the physical strength of one too, Baekhyun forcibly tore his gaze away from the distracting sight to look into the other’s pretty eyes.

“Wouldn’t you like to know~” He replied in a sing-song voice, a little scratchy from the previous sight, wondering if acting like a little shit would hide the fact that he had been staring at Chanyeol’s arms, hands and _nipple_.

The younger continued to stare, unmoved, maybe even a slight bit amused.

“I can’t exactly help you if you don’t tell me, you know.”

 Well darn, Baekhyun frowned, he got him there.

“Is it your friend Chen? He’s got a pretty smile, that one,” Chanyeol mused, looking away and obviously thinking about Jongdae’s million dollar grin. Baekhyun scowled at the sight, trying to will away the jealousy inside of him.

“No it’s not Jongdae,” he replied instantly, face unhappy. “He’s _straight_.”

He spat out the word in retaliation, in revenge, like this one fact would crush Chanyeol’s dreams. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately?, Chanyeol didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that Jongdae wasn’t the man he thought he was, and Baekhyun tried not to feel too satisfied at the thought of Chanyeol not having feelings for Jongdae.

“Well then who is it?” Chanyeol asked with raised eyebrows. He tapped the table with one of his especially long fingers and Baekhyun made sure his gaze stayed straight.

“Do Kyungsoo. He went to our high school as wel—”

“No way,” Chanyeol laughed instantly. “Kyungsoo?”

The taller boy’s face stretched into a wide grin, his teeth shining white in the sunlight. He looked so amused at the sudden revelation, his palms spreading wide on the table.

“I had a crush on him for a while in high school.” Chanyeol revealed simply as if he wasn’t talking to a boy who he knew hated his guts. “But I always thought he was straight.”

The simple jealousy Baekhyun felt at the idea of Chanyeol liking Jongdae was nothing compared to the flame that ignited at the thought of Chanyeol and Kyungsoo together. He instantly tried to dampen the feelings which threatened to crawl into his head at the thought of the two with each other. Thoughts like _Chanyeol placing his large palm on Kyungsoo’s small shoulder, holding him there and in place as he bent down to_ _kiss_ —

“Good thing I got over him as soon as he hit me for the first time.” Chanyeol remained bubbly, not noticing Baekhyun’s inner plight. "That boy is terrifying."

The words caused the older to look up in confusion.

“You guys… know each other?”

Chanyeol frowned at him. “We were chemistry buddies for like two years.”

Baekhyun frowned. Kyungsoo had never told him this. He knew that the other took chemistry as a subject, but never had he heard him speak of Chanyeol in _any_ of his classes. It wasn’t like Kyungsoo didn’t know of Baekhyun’s like— _hatred_ for the other boy either. Whenever he caught sight of the giant in high school, he always spewed insults to his friends about how dumb the other looked and _man, why were his hands so big?_

“He never told you?”

The older boy didn’t respond, feeling a little betrayed by his friend for never telling him about Chanyeol. It wasn’t like he _really_ cared or anything (if he lied to himself), but he did tell his friends everything. He thought Kyungsoo did as well.

“Well anyway, what do you wanna do about it?” Chanyeol eventually asked when it didn’t seem like Baekhyun was going to respond.

The smaller boy brought his mind back to the conversation, shaking his head to dispel his thoughts. He’d think about it all later.

Chanyeol was sitting in front of him, finally looking interested. All prior hesitance was now shed from his posture, looking incredibly composed and even a little interested in what Baekhyun had to say. He even had a small smile on his face, his mouth creeping up slightly, perfect representation of a crooked smile if Baekhyun had ever seen one.

“Kyungsoo would be too embarrassed to say anything, and knowing him he’d probably say no if Kai asked him out of nowhere. So we need to introduce them, and help them get to know each other.”

Baekhyun spilled what he previously had in mind, his own tone a little less hostile than before.

“I was thinking maybe we could… pretend to be friends, and go on like friendship lunches and dinners and stuff with them. Help them get to know each other.”

The words left a bad taste in his mouth. Just the thought of having to pretend he was friendly with Park Chanyeol was almost too much to bear. Kyungsoo _better_ be grateful that he had such a great friend.

“Nah,” Chanyeol disagreed almost immediately causing Baekhyun’s eye to twitch. “You hate me, I partially dislike you, they won’t believe our sudden ‘friendship’.”

He put finger quotes around the word friendship and Baekhyun scowled.

“Then what’s your _brilliant_ idea, Freud?” He responded sarcastically.

Chanyeol rolled his eyes at Baekhyun’s tone, clasping his hands together as if to take control of the conversation.

“I mean, it’s not a bad idea. It’s just that, why don’t we go the whole way. Let’s be pretend boyfriends.”

“What?! No!”

Baekhyun yelled out, aghast. Chanyeol looked so pleased with himself at the idea, making Baekhyun want to reach a hand out to hit him. What was Chanyeol even _on_? How did he even get such terrible ideas?

“That’s even more unbelievable than the friendship one.”

Shaking his head, Baekhyun looked towards the taller man in shock.  

“No it isn’t. Think about this idea. We’ve been enemies for so long – but we’ve held this deep hidden lust for each other all these years. We had some hate sex, tolerated each other’s presence, had some more hate sex and now are boyfriends.”

The idea of hate sex, or just any sex with Chanyeol turned Baekhyun red. He had to pinch himself on the soft fleshy skin of his stomach to get the image of Chanyeol’s huge palms and arms and biceps out of his head. The idea of them pinning him to the mattress, and manhandling him for he was worth was a terribly erotic thought.

“We don’t even have to be really nice to each other. We can pretend to tolerate each other’s presence still, since it’s all for the hate sex. I mean tolerating each other is our charm, isn’t it?”

Chanyeol gave him a wink with that, causing Baekhyun to flush an even darker shade of red. His cheeks felt so hot under the sight of Chanyeol’s gaze and the fact that it was 200 degrees didn’t help one bit.

“This is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“Is it really?”

No, it wasn’t, but Baekhyun still felt affronted at the thought of Chanyeol being his pretend boyfriend. He was hardly accepting the idea of Chanyeol being his _friend_ , being his pretend _boyfriend_ was something unimaginable. He honestly couldn’t imagine what it would be like, hanging around and having to touch Chanyeol in front of his friends. The thought just sent a rush of anger through Baekhyun who tried to ignore the heat of lust that followed after.

“You’re warming up to the idea.”

Chanyeol watched him from the other side of the table, a hint of a smile on his face. Baekhyun scowled back at him, his usual expression whenever he had to deal with the giant boy.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, idiot. This is still the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to even ask for your help.” Baekhyun muttered angrily, ears flushing red in embarrassment. “I should’ve asked Sehun instead.”

“Aw, come on, it’s a good idea,” Chanyeol complained, shaking his head. He looked towards the watch on his wrist, shaking his head. “Anyway, I have to get to class now. I’ll let your pretty little head think about it for a bit and you can get back to me when you decide it is a good idea. Enjoy your lunch, it’s probably cold now.”

He gestured towards Baekhyun’s bento that had been left open despite the older not even breaking apart his disposable chopsticks. He sent Baekhyun a teasing smile, half grin, half something evil before standing up.

The smaller man grumbled unintelligibly, forcing his gaze away from the sliver of skin he saw through his peripheral vision as the result of Chanyeol’s shirt riding up.

“See you, boyfriend,” Chanyeol whispered, trailing his fingers mischievously over the back of Baekhyun’s palm before pouncing off, backpack hanging low.

Baekhyun’s grip around his now uncovered chopsticks tightened immeasurably, hoping to ignore the trail of goosebumps the tall idiot left in his wake. He brought his gaze down towards his bento, trying to steady his racing heartbeat as he took a bite of cold tempura.

Baekhyun hated Park Chanyeol. He really truly hated him.

But what he hated the most, he thought as he tried to contain his mad blush, was his feelings for him.


	2. the reveal

**AN:** oh so I talk a lot about Chanyeol's arms because I kind of have an obsession with them and um here... just take a look-see yourself. god bless us all

 

Baekhyun didn’t need any deductive reasoning to know that he was jerking off tonight.

The back of his hand burned, like he had dipped the poor limb into a vat of acid. He sat there at the table for a good thirty seconds, chopsticks dropped into the combination of cold tempura, takoyaki and miso soup, suddenly feeling like a tiny creature in a world that was very, very large. It was with the clumsy grace of a giraffe (an odd choice of animal if height was considered) that he stood up, bringing his plate of food and dumping it all into the trash.

With a scowl, he touched the back of his palm, checking for any oddities. Maybe Park Chanyeol really left something there and that was why his hand was tingling so much. Nope. Nothing. Baekhyun had been expecting maybe a few bumps, physical signs of a deadly transmitted disease like a type of hand herpes if that was a thing. It would explain why he could practically feel the area vibrating.

If he was being honest, that was the first time he had ever touched Chanyeol. Or let the other touch him. It infuriated Baekhyun just how easily Chanyeol touched him, like he had a big sign on his forehead saying, ‘Touch Me’ or something. Baekhyun partly remembered seeing a prank like that on YouTube and quickly glanced at a reflective window to make sure Jongdae hadn’t scribbled anything in his sleep. He could never be too sure with the sketchy guy.

After catching the sight of spotless skin, Baekhyun frowned. He looked as plain as ever, maybe a little sweatier than usual. Chanyeol had never bothered to really interact with him before, obviously finding Baekhyun’s personality way too much to deal with. Honestly, the older boy found Chanyeol ignoring him to be signs of even more pretentious behaviour. Of course Chanyeol would act like Baekhyun was the kid. What typical behaviour of Guys Who Pretend They’re Mature. What a bitch.

Baekhyun wasn’t usually so immature – okay, he’d admit it, he knows he gets especially and maybe irrationally aggravated around Chanyeol, sue him. Anyway, Baekhyun was quite normal most of the time, sometimes he’d even call himself responsible. This was besides the fact that he has been called ‘very mature for his age’ by the old lady down the street. That was useless praise, considering that  _Jongdae_ had been complimented by that same old lady and God only knew how mature Jongdae was.

At any rate, Baekhyun followed the set codes for normal social interaction, and was a pretty nice guy to boot. That was him being modest. He lived life pretty standardly, nothing really out of the ordinary. He had average looks, mediocre grades and pretty normal friends. Park Chanyeol was the only exception in Baekhyun’s life, a simple fact that he was beginning to find out.

*~*

Baekhyun couldn’t control the moan that escaped his mouth when he tugged a little at the base of his cock,  _oh right there_.

Holing himself in his dormitory right after his last lecture, Baekhyun had proceeded to dick around on the computer for a bit, trying to ignore all thoughts of the annoying man. However, dicking around on the computer reminded him of the fact that he  _had_ a dick. A dick that seemed to want some attention, he thought with fascination, watching it rise from the depths almost as if it was called by name.

(Baekhyun didn’t have a name for his dick, but if he did, it would be something cute.)

With haste, he tore his clothes off his body, angling his torso on the bed and grabbing the left-over bottle of lube he kept hidden in the bottom of his drawer. The clock indicated that he probably had around an hour before Jongdae finished his last shift, and it was with that thought in mind that he set himself back, legs spread and grip ready.

He took himself easily in his hands, playing loosely with his grip before he reverted to his usual stance like an Olympic athlete, gearing up and ready to run the whole mile.  _You can do it Jimmy_ , he mentally visualised an old man coach yelling from the stands,  _You’re almost there!_  Just the thought of such a figure made his cock wilt, and he inwardly cursed his over-imaginative mind.

With the pace of a long-distance runner this time, and no images of old man coaches in his head, he slid his fingers slow and steady over his ever expanding erection, pumping steadily with even breaths. He wasn’t going to last long tonight, especially if large hands kept flashing in his mind. The thought of someone bending over him and touching him with sure fingers was an image that was almost too arousing.

For a moment, Baekhyun’s hands stilled at the head of his cock, fingers enveloping the silky tip and pulling himself back, lube hot and wet. What would it be like if it was Chanyeol— _anyone’s_ lips right there. Would Chanyeol— _someone that wasn’t Chanyeol_ take him fast in his mouth? Would Chanyeol— _they_ let him fuck their mouth? He continued to play with the tip, the heat generated almost excruciating, and the mental image of  _okay, he’ll admit it_ , Chanyeol wrapping his mouth around him almost enough to make him come.

He could only half register the image of Chanyeol’s lips red and swollen along with a tongue that was  _so_  wet before Baekhyun was tugging at his balls, two fingers on the brink of probing his entrance. He came with a loud shout of, ‘ _Chan…yeol.’_

Baekhyun remained still for a few moments afterwards, resting himself after such a strenuous stage. His body still buzzed post-orgasm, cock wet, soft and nestled delicately within the white of his thighs. He laid on the bed, head hard against the backboard before he cursed loudly.

He just fucking jerked off to the thought of Chanyeol. The image of the other naked and in front of him, taking him in the mouth and blowing him to completion was unable to leave his mind. The haze of his orgasm had sheltered the fact that he just jerked off to his enemy and the fact that he had unbridled lust for the tall boy.

He had to admit it now, there was no escaping it. As much as he hated the boy, he liked him too. Or at least he did physically. Chanyeol was undoubtedly the hottest boy he had ever laid his eyes on. His transformation from the skinny bean sprout he was in middle school to the sexy Korean version of a Greek god he was today was a true miracle of the world. A story that would be told through the ages. God bless puberty.

He groaned, wiping his hands on the tissues he kept close to his bed, reaching up to rub his forehead with soothing pressure. He had been so horny the whole day, arousal pressed against the rough fabric of his jeans for an especially lengthy period. To be honest it had hurt a lot, like hell even, and he kept having to adjust his pants so his dick wouldn’t chafe and somehow catch fire or something. He wasn’t sure how stuff like that worked, but it felt like he had a  _log_ in his pants and logs were on the list of warnings for forest fires.

Nevertheless, Baekhyun had felt like a vat of sperm incarnate, waiting to be tipped over the edge, no matter how visually disturbing the image was. He inwardly gagged at the thought that changed to a question about how the vat got there and suddenly Baekhyun was imagining a squad of bukkake soldiers.  _That_ was an image he never wished to see again, widening his eyes and once again cursing his overactive imagination.

It did happen to bring him back to his current situation which involved sitting down with a leg of half-dried cum, and he quickly jumped off the bed, hopping down towards the bathroom before holing himself in. He took the cleaning business to another level, half wanting to make sure he was just entirely clean, the other half trying to purge his mind of anything related to soldiers.

Baekhyun was just about done ripping his bedsheets off and adding laundry to his mental to-do list (because he was going to run out of clean bedsheets at the rate he was going), before the door to the room opened.

“Fuck Baek, the whole room smells like cum.”

Jongdae’s whiny voice was heard before the man was seen, two containers of takeout in both his hands.

“Oh, did you buy some for me too?” Baekhyun grinned, tying the bags of dirtied sheets. “You’re the best, Chennie!”

 “No way, you fucking jerked off in here and didn’t bother to air the room out. You don’t deserve my love.”

Jongdae sounded irritated but Baekhyun knew his food wasn’t in danger of being stolen. If anything, Baekhyun had caught the other a couple of times, so he knew he had at least a few more chances before Jongdae actually decided to make do with his threats.

“We can eat in the dining hall.” Baekhyun offered, smiling when Jongdae rolled his eyes and relented.

They walked together and Baekhyun grabbed one of the bowls of noodles. The dormitory they lived in was kinda sheltered away from the main campus, a little off to the side and practically within the depths of a wild forest. When Baekhyun had first moved on campus, not so affectionately calling it ‘ _the fucking jungle’,_  he had woken up a few times in the middle of the night, a light sheen of sweat covering his body. Usually it was the same dream, the one nightmare that consisted of a boa constrictor strangling him before swallowing him whole.

Luckily for him, he had yet to see a boa constrictor let alone any type of snake despite being in the midst of  _the fucking jungle_ , even growing to kind of like the peaceful silence the forest could give. There weren’t any snakes now, although when he caught sight of Sehun and then subsequently Chanyeol laughing within the dining hall, Baekhyun thought he saw the biggest snake of them all.

He started to creep back slowly, wanting to disappear from the earth itself at just the sight of the tall giant. His cheeks flushed bright, chest tightening from the hot muggy air and the thought that he had jerked off to said man only  _minutes_ ago.

Chanyeol had a bowl of complimentary dining hall soup, and Baekhyun watched with wide eyes when the other’s lips wrapped around the metal spoon, a perfect imitation of the image Baekhyun conjured when he jerked off.

“Hey, where are you going?” Jongdae frowned, stopping when he caught sight of Baekhyun creeping away slowly.

“I mean…” Baekhyun started, eyes flicking towards the ceiling, his face still hot. “The smell should be gone, it should be okay, let’s go…”

He heard the loud laugh of Chanyeol and Kai coming from the table, his fight or flee response brimming under the surface. All fight had left him unfortunately, had probably drained out of his system along with his cum, and as a result, all he felt was the urge to flee. It was biology, right? Something the National Geographic would have a whole special on.

Jongdae rolled his eyes, walking closer towards the tables with a roll of his eyes.

“No. Plus, I already messaged Kyungsoo to meet us here.”

Baekhyun continued to shuffle backwards, stumbling awkwardly as he held onto his bowl of noodles.

“Baekhyun!” Jongdae stressed, somewhat frustrated. His voice was a little loud for the enclosed building, reverberating through the space and unfortunately reaching the especially large ears of a certain fellow.

Baekhyun could only watch with wide eyes and a sense of mottled unease in his gut as Chanyeol’s head turned around to face the area that Jongdae and Baekhyun occupied. It was almost as though the action was in slow motion, like a scene from a movie, which in itself was a terrible idea because Baekhyun was  _not_ the main character and Chanyeol was definitely  _not_  a potential love interest.

Maybe if he wasn’t so embarrassed with himself for jerking off to the boy, he would’ve been able to look past Chanyeol’s sudden grin and the huge wave the other sent him.

“Baek!” He yelled across the food area, causing a number of heads to turn.

Chanyeol sat dumb in his chair, huge grin swallowing his face whole. He looked somewhat mischievous and Baekhyun cursed him to hell and back.

“Is he calling  _you?_ ” Jongdae asked, surprised. He looked towards Baekhyun with a shocked expression. “What the heck did you do son?”

Baekhyun just grimaced, holding the noodles even closer to his chest when he saw the tall boy jump out of his seat and make his way towards the two of them.

“He’s coming over here. Fuck Baekhyun is he going to beat us up?” Jongdae whispered beside him, closing his eyes and saying his prayers like it was his last day on earth.

Chanyeol’s legs were huge, long and thick, bounding across the hall and catching both Baekhyun and Jongdae in half the time it would’ve taken the two to cross the area. He stood tall next to Baekhyun whose instinct was to just cower in fear or in embarrassment, he wasn’t sure which one.

Usually, he would’ve already let out a scathing remark, complete with a gesture that would’ve made his mother blush. It wasn’t like Baekhyun could control his emotions anyway, just the sight of Park Chanyeol made him want to get a large pointy object (but also fall to his knees anyway, really what the fuck was up with that).

Today however, he stayed mum, standing next to Jongdae and feeling like an ant next to the tallest man in the world. Chanyeol’s smile hadn’t lessened since he first saw Baekhyun in the hall, and it was only then did he see the razor-like quality to it.

Fuck, Chanyeol looked  _terrifying_  and Baekhyun wondered why it was only now that he ever realised it.

“Baek…” His grin widened, and Baekhyun could’ve swore he saw a fang slip out. Or maybe it was just the lighting. “Great thing you’re here. Come sit with us. We’ve got something to tell our friends.”

He grabbed Baekhyun around the arm, dragging him instantly towards the table of rowdy boys. Baekhyun had the urge to refuse, to slap the other’s hand away and curse him for ever touching him. It was the heat of Chanyeol’s palm that stopped him from doing so, the fingers tightening into the flesh of Baekhyun’s arm and burning him through. He could feel each digit flex further into skin, holding him tight and without reprieve.

Turning his eyes towards Jongdae, he sent out a ‘help me’ glance but the other looked just as shocked as he was, following from behind with a befuddled expression on his face.

They reached the table soon enough, Chanyeol’s grip unrelenting and holding Baekhyun tight. It was only then did Baekhyun notice Kai also sitting with the rest of his friends. When Kai saw Chanyeol dragging Baekhyun, his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Hey guys, we have a few others sitting with us today. Hope you don’t mind,” Chanyeol said simply, releasing his grip. He took the noodles from Baekhyun’s hands and placed them steadily on the table with the gentleness and grace of an extremely precise seamstress. Overall, Chanyeol was treating Baekhyun delicately and the older almost flushed in embarrassment. Was this Chanyeol pretending he was his  _boyfriend_? Is that what he was doing?

He even pulled out Baekhyun’s seat for him causing the smaller boy’s ears to burn hot in mortification. God fucking damn him. There was something mocking about the movements that made him want to pummel the other to death, or at least to a state where he wouldn’t be able to recover so easily.

Jongdae followed awkwardly beside him, but not before he sent Baekhyun a confused and somewhat irritated glance. Something that screamed,  _what the heck is going on Baekhyun_.

“What’s going on Chanyeol? I thought you two were mortal enemies?” Kai asked from the other side of the table. A perfectly logical question, Baekhyun thought, considering it  _was_ true.

When Baekhyun went to take his seat, Chanyeol took his noodles away from him, opening the container for him and grabbing the pair of chopsticks. Baekhyun opened his mouth to interrupt and ask just why the hell the other took his food when Chanyeol blew on the noodles. However, instead of eating it himself, he raised his hand and placed it near Baekhyun’s lips.

Just the action itself made Baekhyun’s blood boil in his veins, his fists clenching almost automatically on the table. Chanyeol was treating him like a  _baby_. The fucker had the audacity to treat him like he couldn’t take care of himself, all with a mocking smile on his face. He looked so amused by the whole situation, waving the chopsticks close to Baekhyun’s mouth.

“Well,” Chanyeol said, beginning to answer Kai’s question as he held the food next to Baekhyun. His eyes beckoned the older to eat up, almost daring. He looked like he was going to start making aeroplane noises if Baekhyun didn’t hurry up.

The more he thought about the stupid situation, the more he wanted to rip the infuriating smirk off Chanyeol’s face. He only somewhat noticed the number of dropped jaws around them. Jongdae was right next to him, mouth practically touching the floor as he watched Chanyeol hold the food next to Baekhyun, time ticking. He could see similar looks on Kai and Sehun’s faces, indicating their surprise.

It was with the strength of a very patient person, probably something inhuman that he opened his mouth and accepted Chanyeol’s chopsticks, wrapping his lips around the bamboo sticks and slurping up the tasty remains. He watched fervently as Chanyeol’s eyes dropped to Baekhyun’s lips and the tongue that slipped out to lick at the drop of sauce that lay flatly at the edge of his lips.

“Baek and I are dating.”

The number of shouts that left the table would’ve been amusing if Baekhyun wasn’t so infuriated right now. Chanyeol looked so pleased with himself, like the cat that ate the canary. Humiliation burned through Baekhyun, his face lighting up in a mix of embarrassment and anger as he recalled the situation in his head. Even if the others believed him, Chanyeol was just fucking with him, eyes bright with mischief. He was a fox with way too much time on his hands.

“No way!” Jongdae was the first to yell from next to Baekhyun. He turned his face towards the older boy with a look of complete surprise. “You didn’t tell me?”

Baekhyun wanted to sigh, opening his mouth to say that it wasn’t true before Chanyeol reached over to grab his hand. The movement was extremely casual like Chanyeol was actually his boyfriend and had practice in the simple matter of reaching over and grabbing hands. That in itself caused Baekhyun to freeze because holy fuck Chanyeol was holding his hand and it was both stimulating and enraging at the same time.

Chanyeol’s fingers were as warm as he imagined them being, so large they surrounded Baekhyun’s tiny hands like a comfortable glove. His hand engulfed Baekhyun’s in a way that made him think of a cocoon, like his fingers were tiny butterflies with the want to stay buried inside forever. The thought made Baekhyun’s stomach clench in anger, because he knew Chanyeol was just doing this to piss him off, and the fact that he had imagery of his hands as butterflies was embarrassing.

“Uh,” Baekhyun started, sighing when he realised that he had to go down this path. “Sorry?”

He turned to face the surprised-looking man, hand still wrapped within the warm grasp of Chanyeol. He tried not to think of how large the tall man’s fingers were and how thick they felt holding him steadily. After being harassed by so many homoerotic thoughts of Chanyeol’s hands in the past, Baekhyun felt quite proud of himself when his mind didn’t automatically go down that route. But then it did and his cheeks heated further at the thought of those fingers  _entering him_.

Fucking hell. He had jerked off less than hour ago and here he was feeling like this again. He really had to get himself under check. Stupid Park Chanyeol and his stupid dumb fingers.

When he looked towards Sehun and Kai, the two of them were staring at their joined hands like they could hardly believe the situation. Heck, Jongdae looked like he was going to fall off the chair with how surprised he was. He wasn’t sure what Chanyeol’s friends thought of him, not ever having to talk to them in the past. By the looks of complete astonishment on their faces, Baekhyun was sure they had never expected this. Neither had Baekhyun and look where he was today.

“It’s a recent development,” Chanyeol answered easily, like he wasn’t sending three people into cardiac arrest. He swapped his right hand to hold Baekhyun’s with his left, reaching his right arm over to wrap around a small shoulder. “We decided to put the past behind us and we’re really happy now. We were wondering when to tell you guys. Can only imagine how surprised you all are.”

He used his arm to pull Baekhyun closer, the older’s chair scratching across the ground before eventually being pressed into Chanyeol’s side. It seemed like Chanyeol was just made of warmth, like he had ingested the sun’s rays or something and was now a big, gay walking ray of sunshine. He honestly wouldn’t even question the analogy, considering the fact that Baekhyun always felt blinded just looking at Chanyeol’s smile on his stupid dumb face.

The warmth radiated through the other’s t-shirt, practically burning Baekhyun, and all he could smell was the musky scent of deodorant and something purely Chanyeol. The other probably used Axe or something similar, and even just that made him feel angry for God knows what reason. Baekhyun was pretty sure he was just trying to find things to be angry about right now because if he let himself feel things without a set of checks and balances, then he was pretty sure the only thing he was going to be feeling was the want to lean further into Chanyeol’s chest.

“How recent?” Jongdae questioned, eyes still locked on the two of them together. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”

“Same Chanyeol, what is this?” Kai asked, eyebrows furrowed. “You guys hate each other.”

Baekhyun’s mouth had finally decided to start working again, his brain moving past the fact that Chanyeol was holding him close to his chest.

“Hate sex is the best sex.”

Sehun snorted at that, sending Baekhyun a look before raising his glass in the air, an amen to that.

Chanyeol’s deep laughter caused his body to shake, sending mini-vibrations through Baekhyun who was still stuck in the other’s side. He squeezed Baekhyun’s hand one more time before he released the smaller man, letting Baekhyun sit back up straight and enjoy his dinner. Clearing his throat, Baekhyun straightened up and tried to not feel like a mail-order bride.

“If you’re having sex on the regular…” Jongdae started, crossing his eyebrows. “Then why was it only an hour ago I—”

“Kyungsoo!” Baekhyun yelled out, shutting Jongdae up in the middle of his question. Fuck Jongdae for having no tact at all. Obviously this dinner table was not the right place to talk about  _Baekhyun jerking off_  to Chanyeol of all people – but Jongdae didn’t need to know that specific detail.

His yell wasn’t for nothing though, actually catching his friend walking into the hall. Kyungsoo’s eyes were searching past the tables as he tried to find the one that held both Jongdae and Baekhyun. When he saw just who his friends were sitting with, Baekhyun almost snorted in amusement at the sight of his friend’s large eyes widening even further.

He hobbled towards the table, the only spare seat being the one that was conveniently next to Kai. Baekhyun grinned, subtly elbowing Chanyeol in the side. He sat down calmly, making express and obvious action to not look at Kai.

 Baekhyun moved further into the table, resting his elbows on the cold surface.

“How was class?”

“What the heck is going on?” Kyungsoo asked, eyes surveying the scene. “Is this some kind of prank? When would  _you_ ,” he tilted his chin towards Baekhyun, “willingly sit next to Park Chanyeol?”

“Hey!” Chanyeol grumbled out, indignant. “Why do you say it like it’s something bad? You sat next to me in chem for two years.”

Kyungsoo’s cheeks flamed and Baekhyun rested further on the table, wanting to hear why the other never spoke about Chanyeol in his classes.

“No, I mean—”

“Soo, they’re  _together_.” Jongdae interrupted, seemingly not past the fact that the two had just revealed they were together. He still looked shocked, like he could hardly believe it and Baekhyun had to give the other credit for interrupting Kyungsoo without fear. Interrupting Kyungsoo usually had dire consequences, and was only recommended for the bravest of hearts.  

“What? Who?” Kyungsoo’s eyes flicked towards Sehun and Kai for the first time that night, and for the first time in a long time, Baekhyun was sure he saw a flicker of jealousy. “You two?”

“No, you idiot.” Jongdae bonked him on the head, pointing towards Chanyeol and Baekhyun. “These… guys.”

Kyungsoo let out a laugh, hiding his face behind the back of a palm. The fact that Kyungsoo out of all people actually laughed was a legendary fact in itself. Do Kyungsoo was the master of no emotion, up there with Oh Sehun himself. Those two hardly showed anything past mere smiles whenever something unfortunate happened to their friends, little devils in their own right. Kyungsoo laughing was like an unimaginable concept, something that was in theory but never in practice. Except for today, Baekhyun snorted, half-wishing he was filming the moment. This was a Hallmark moment in the making.

“Ha ha, very funny.” He snorted, looking at both Chanyeol and Baekhyun. “This is the dumbest prank I’ve ever witnessed.”

Baekhyun opened his mouth, but Chanyeol started talking before he could say anything.

“It’s not a prank,” Chanyeol was frowning, like he was actually vexed that the other thought it was a prank. He looked so sincere, Baekhyun was somewhat impressed. But then he forced himself to not be impressed because he was having way too many positive feelings for the other this evening. “We’re actually together.”

It seemed like Kyungsoo was having the same dilemma as Baekhyun or at least, he was now finally starting to question whether this actually was a prank. He looked towards Baekhyun who suddenly steeled his expression, hoping that he looked half as genuine as Chanyeol.

“What? No, I don’t believe you…” Kyungsoo’s eyebrows were furrowed and he stared straight at Baekhyun now. “No way would you have…”

Baekhyun wanted to agree, because he definitely did  _not_ agree to this, but he was way too far in now to say anything contrary. He just shrugged, shoulders falling heavily.

“Prove it.” Kyungsoo was still frowning, “Prove that you’re together.”

“How?” Baekhyun asked with a snort. “Do you want me to show you our boyfriend certificate, the one that was signed in the presence of a witness?”

He let his shoulders fall onto the back of his chair, stretching out. Of course it would be Kyungsoo who did not believe them. Nothing got past the guy. Baekhyun was sure he was going to need to put together all of his acting skills just so he could fool him. The fact that he was fooling Kyungsoo for the sake of helping him was what made it somewhat hilarious.

“No…” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes like Baekhyun was being ridiculous.

“Then what?” Baekhyun asked, his eyebrows raising in pure innocence.

The look on Kyungsoo’s face changed, from confusion to mischief and Baekhyun knew he was in for a load of trouble.

“Prove it by kissing each other.”

And when Chanyeol turned to face him, bright eyes sparkling with almost as much mischief as Kyungsoo, Baekhyun knew he was in over his head.

God damn, he hated Park Chanyeol.

 


	3. the chapter with too much exposition about ~the kiss~ and other nonsense

Baekhyun always found it hard to kiss in front of people. There was just something intimate about kisses, you know? Something that he wanted to keep hidden behind closed doors, like the image of two lips moving in concert was lecherous and  _ungodly_. How dare this secular society promote such abhorrent values!

He always felt frazzled and embarrassed whenever he was caught mid-kiss. There was intimacy involved.  _Intimacy_.

It didn’t make sense especially when Baekhyun considered himself a master flirt. He loved the game aspect of flirting – of being sexy and beautiful, able to rile with salacious prose. How could he flirt so skilfully with a wanton gaze and sharp tongue, yet curl under pressure when challenged with a mere lip-lock? It didn’t make sense to his friends and it hardly made sense to Baekhyun himself.

It was one of his idiosyncrasies. The ones that society dictated as being  _distinctive to your person!_ Baekhyun wasn’t sure if that was just a polite way of saying he was weird. Because it didn’t make sense, you know? Why did he like to flirt so much? Who knew! Why was he afraid of kissing people in public? Who knew!

It was something that made him ~ _special_ ~

Which was complete bullshit. Not only was his ‘fear’ contradictory, but it was also just plain annoying. Kissing people was natural. Why couldn’t he kiss someone as easily as he flirted?

Maybe Baekhyun liked to flirt because flirting highlighted the chemistry between the people, the attraction that caused them to go from one and come together as two. People loved those attraction forces. You know, the ones you learn in high school physics? That’s what the attraction was, right? People  _were_ bundles of atoms, maybe they were just atoms who couldn’t help the way their bonds reacted or whatever.

Baekhyun had dropped physics (or did he learn it in chemistry? He dropped that too). He was one of those so-called ‘non-maths-oriented brains’, another concept he wasn’t sure was real.  _That_ was probably a polite way of saying he was dumb. Great, he was not only weird but also dumb. It was probably the government who enforced all this labelling. Maybe they wanted to create a dichotomy between the maths-oriented (aka the smart ones) and the non-maths oriented (aka the… he’ll get back to you on that) so they could start their own regime kind of like Plato’s Republic.

Anyway, he digressed. Sometimes you just can’t stop him when he’s talking about the horrors of the government. You never know what they’re up to, it’s all a lie–

Flirting. Kissing. Yes. Baekhyun was good at flirting. He was especially good at giving boys the good ol’ one two wink-a-roo, a special technique that he had honed as a young teenager. It helped him get what he wanted, whether it was a meal or the boy himself. Baekhyun was  _good_ at flirting and he knew just how important it was in itself. If romance novels spend a good portion on it, then it must be essential, right?

Yes, Baekhyun read romance novels. In particular, erotica. Gay erotica. Homosexual, butt sexing, bears with hair that would make Fabio cry, erotica. No shame, all God's children. He was practically a veteran in the genre, knowing the ins and outs, and just how they ticked. Usually, the introduction contained a lot more backstory than Baekhyun wanted to read because he was reading a god damn  _erotic romance novel_ , not The Lord of the Rings or something. After the introduction however, the story usually progressed quickly where the characters warmed up to each other. It was during that point where the whole flirting stuff happened and after that, the love scenes.

The love scenes were always so intense, like a star combusted and two characters were somehow feeling the effects of that however many lightyears away. Baekhyun was pretty sure he had never felt attraction like that before. Because somehow the main character always exploded from their orgasm, and it was  _the hardest they’ve ever come, oh baby you’re so good!_

To be honest, Baekhyun never thought that shit was real. The boys he had kissed and had sex with in the past, while good enough, were never anything to write home about. He never faked any orgasms or anything, but sometimes there was more discomfort than there was comfort and there was  _never_ any aftercare. Never. Baekhyun always had to clean himself up, which made him somewhat angry but whatever. Maybe that’s what it was in real life.

Here though, right here in the room with Chanyeol’s lips only a few centimetres apart, Baekhyun can kind of see what the romance books had been talking about. There was a certain tingle in the air and he could practically feel electricity-pulsed tension between them. Suddenly, time was still, or had slowed down by a lot, and Baekhyun could feel it  _all_.

He was extremely embarrassed, feeling the hot gazes of the others watching eagerly beside him. There was something in Kyungsoo’s eyes too, Baekhyun had seen it just before he turned to Chanyeol. The boy looked like he was waiting for Baekhyun to crumble under pressure. Like he knew it wasn’t real. Well fuck that guy, he was going to kiss Park Chanyeol and he was going to convince everyone they  _were_ dating.

And, with a heavy heart and uneasy stomach, he did.

But, it was Chanyeol who made it real. It was Chanyeol who reached his palms out and grabbed him by the cheeks, holding him close, unable to escape. It was Chanyeol who delved straight into his lips, who connected them, slotting them together with such intensity and passion Baekhyun could only moan.

There was something eerily intimate about the way Chanyeol was holding his cheeks within the palms of his hands, even more intimate than the kiss itself. Baekhyun forced himself closer, ignoring the unsure sensation in his gut, crawling into the other’s lap and making a home there. He felt like a little woodland creature, hiding away from the brisk cold of the winter in his warm den. He had never felt such feeling in a kiss before, hands slipping down towards the tall man’s torso and touching the hard pecs that sat innocently under his shirt.

Chanyeol grappled his cheeks, pressing his thumb deeper into the soft flesh, fingers flexing into the hard lines of Baekhyun’s cheekbones. He tilted Baekhyun’s head to the side to plunder his mouth, forcing him to open wide and enlaced their tongues together. More than aroused, Baekhyun responded eagerly, almost on instinct. His brain was hardly working now, not even realising he was in public anymore, body responding by pure muscle memory at this point. His body jolted as he felt the smooth glide of lips and tongue, a tiny clash of teeth, before Chanyeol was going  _deeper_ , sending Baekhyun into almost cataclysmic shock. 

Neither the strong gazes he could somewhat hazily feel burn into the back of his head, nor his dislike for public kissing made Baekhyun want to stop. In the back of his mind, he made himself believe it was because he was trying to put on a good show. A great show, he thought as he grabbed Chanyeol’s t-shirt with force, nearly ripping the material. Chanyeol's mouth had a subtle taste, something wholesome and slightly bitter, and Baekhyun loved it. He honestly truly fucking loved the flavour, wanting to taste more of it by seizing Chanyeol’s lips again and again and  _again_.

However, something even further back in his head began to ring warning bells. Signals that something was wrong. He wanted to ignore the annoying thoughts and stay within the kiss, within the hot and wet unity of their lips, but the flashing was persistent. Relentless. It was telling him that nope, what he was doing wasn’t just for the show. It  _wasn’t just for the show_.

Aroused, Chanyeol let out a soft groan, and Baekhyun could feel the effects of their mind-numbing kiss down below. It was that which caused him to break away from the kiss, mind hazy and nebulous, a string a saliva connecting them like the classic spaghetti scene from the Lady and the Tramp. He sat still in Chanyeol’s lap, feeling the hardness of the other’s leg muscles clench and the way his cock sat half-erect in between the soft of Baekhyun’s thighs.

Chanyeol’s cock made his stomach clench in arousal, and he could feel his own dick respond, hardening slowly for the second time that night.

“Holy crap, we believe you. Please don’t do that ever again in public, there are  _children._ Sehun is here.”

Kai’s voice sounded muffled, like there was a sock in his mouth or maybe a mask covering his face. Baekhyun could hardly make sense of the words as he continued to stare at Chanyeol’s red lips, wet and plump, a little swollen from their kiss. They looked so appetising, so glorious and shiny, the scarlet tinge so lustrous Baekhyun wanted to take another bite. He felt like Snow White being tempted by the poison apple and he only partly managed to control himself from having another taste.

He knew it was a bad idea. There was a thought in the deep crevices of his mind that was telling him something along the lines of, if he kissed Chanyeol right now there was going to be terrible consequences. Baekhyun vaguely remembered the fact that Chanyeol was supposed to be his enemy.

But Chanyeol was staring at him too. His gaze was locked onto Baekhyun’s face, probably on his own red lips. Chanyeol looked like he wanted to seize him, to devour him  _whole_.

This should be the moment where Baekhyun sits back and gives himself a moment of clarity. There was nothing going on between them – their kiss was now finished, and everyone seemed like they were readily convinced the two were together. Baekhyun had no excuse at all to instigate anything. He could no longer put the blame on Kyungsoo and his wondering, or the way in which Jongdae had been egging him on all night. Nothing.

But Baekhyun threw caution to the wind, his heart galloping like a race horse, and rocked gently over Chanyeol’s lap. The tall boy’s eyes shot straight to Baekhyun as the older continued to generate friction between his thighs and Chanyeol’s hardening cock.

Chanyeol let out a shuddering breath, hands moving on instinct to Baekhyun’s hips and holding him tight. His fingers gripped Baekhyun, almost bruising in their intensity, and it only got Baekhyun more excited, forcing him to rock his ass even harder over the length of Chanyeol’s cock.

Fuck, it was so hot watching Chanyeol’s eyes darken, his mouth dropping open in a silent ‘o’.

But everything stopped when Baekhyun felt a hand pushing him in the flesh of his arm. The force behind the push was strong enough to make him lose his balance, crumpling delicately (or not so delicately) into the width of Chanyeol’s chest. It was also this push that made him realise  _just what the fuck he was doing_.

“Baekhyun stop it you horny fiend. You jerked off literally an hour ago, shithead.” 

His mind was in a haze and suddenly he didn’t realise what was going on. Why was he in Chanyeol’s lap? Why was he feeling the other’s chest under his fingertips? Why was he  _sitting on his hard cock?_

He clumsily tumbled off Chanyeol, moving to sit back on his seat, his eyes fluttering hopelessly as he surveyed the situation. Oh god, he just kissed Chanyeol. He could see the other’s lips, as red as a beacon shining in the dark of the night. For a moment, it seemed as though his brain had fused, memories depleted like a corrupted save file for a video game. Or maybe it was trying to shield him from the fact that he had practically been dry humping the other in public.

Baekhyun hated PDA. He hated watching it and hated participating in it. He had his weird hang-ups and mannerisms that made him dislike it a lot.

But now he had done just that. He had made out and then humped the other’s lap like a horny dog. It wasn’t just a nameless stranger that Baekhyun could easily forget. This was Chanyeol. Park Chanyeol. His enemy and now his… boyfriend.  _Fake_ boyfriend.

He could hardly meet the tall boy’s gaze, face as hot as the sun. He could only loosely hear the rest of the conversation continuing around him, vaguely taking note when he heard Kai laugh at something Kyungsoo had said. He’d probably feel happier about the progress if he wasn’t so mortified.

Chanyeol had played him like a fool, but he also played him like a string instrument, bending him backwards and kissing the life out of him. Baekhyun was somewhat worried that the other was a dementor in disguise, because he was pretty sure kisses weren’t supposed to feel like that. He wasn’t supposed to feel like he was going to  _die_.

This must be what the romance novels talked about – the heat, the tingling, the way in which Baekhyun’s lips felt like they were going to fall off.

As he sat there with his heart in his throat and fire on his face, lingering feelings of doubt and hopelessness stirred up deep inside of him. There was no moment of bliss like there was after a powerful orgasm. All Baekhyun felt was sick, an impending sense of distress building deep inside of his gut, brooding like an electric storm on a humid summer’s day.

How could he be so thoughtless? Stupid? His actions did not make any sense to him and they did not add up one bit. How could he lose control like that, especially in a sea of people? He wasn’t that kind of person. He was someone who bemoaned PDA and all those who ‘practiced’ it.

The worst part though was the fact that Chanyeol was able to do it so easily. Like it meant nothing to the guy. Baekhyun could see him through the corner of his eyes, sitting back on his seat like he didn’t just kiss his fake boyfriend. He looked so unmoved by the whole situation, joining in the conversation with boisterous laughter.

For some reason, it was this that made Baekhyun feel sick and somewhat sad. This was just a game to Chanyeol. Nothing else. He didn’t know why he thought otherwise. Maybe it was the way the other kissed him. Kissed him like he was the last person on earth. Kissed him deep, with passion, with a star-gazed look in his eyes.

He made Baekhyun believe something with that kiss. He made him think past the hatred he had for the tall boy and enjoyed the sensation. But, it wasn’t like that for him. It was just a game.

It was just a game.

 

He rejoined the conversation soon afterwards, his heart still stuck in his throat. It hurt to think of the kiss and of Chanyeol’s feelings about it, but he forced himself to look past it. Baekhyun wasn’t looking for something from the other boy and this was the perfect out. Obviously, Chanyeol didn’t like him and that was something he was glad for. He didn’t want to be with Chanyeol – he hated the boy for God’s sake. If anything, now he was determined to  _only_ play along for Kyungsoo. It was all for Kyungsoo in the end anyway.

“So how long have you guys been… doing your stuff?” Kai asked the two of them, nodding his head towards their direction.

Baekhyun’s blush had died down, but his body still felt warm from the kiss. He wondered if Chanyeol still had his boner before he inwardly scowled at himself for the thought.

Chanyeol was way more invested in their backstory, somehow already thinking of the whole thing complete with specific dates and what Baekhyun was  _wearing_ on them.

“…his black crop top was so cute, you could see his milky tummy. I nearly died on the spot.”

Baekhyun’s blush returned with full force, his eyes widening in shock. He looked towards Chanyeol with raised eyebrows and an opened mouth, astonished.

He  _did_ have a black crop top, a gag gift from a stupid friend. He had worn it out once maybe twice,  _okay four times,_ but as a joke, secretly enjoying just how breezy it was. He was pretty shameless in terms of clothing. He liked his body and the way he looked. From the stares he got on the days he was wearing the shirt out, it seemed a few others liked it just as much.

What he didn’t realise was the fact that  _Chanyeol_  had seen him in the shirt. He had seen Baekhyun and the sight was just so memorable, he remembered the shirt. How the heck…

“He wore that on your date?” Jongdae asked with a snort. He was eating his noodles now, pulling his chopsticks close to his face. “Our friend Tao bought that for his birthday as a gag gift along with a pink sparkly dildo. He told me he wasn’t ever going to wear it again.”

“Jongdae, you bitch,” Baekhyun grumbled, moving over and punching the other in the arm. Jongdae’s noodles wobbled for a second before the younger laughed his way through the pain.

“Our other friend bought him strawberry scented lube to use with the dildo. I’m pretty sure half the bottle is finished already, but maybe you guys can use it. Unless you’ve used it already?” Kyungsoo continued from beside Jongdae, snickering evilly at the sight of Baekhyun’s red face.

Why did Baekhyun have the worst friends? He couldn’t believe he was  _doing_ this for Kyungsoo and this is what the other repaid him with. He could hear the loud laughter coming from the other side of the table, face so hot it was practically on fire.

His left hand was clenched on the table in a tight grip, fingers closed on instinct, before he felt long spidery digits crawl up and grab him once again. He loosened his fingers, automatically accepting the other’s hand. He made express caution to not overthink the move. Simple hand-holding was just something to really convince the others.

“Don’t tease him so much,” Chanyeol’s voice sounded amused and Baekhyun wanted to punch him.

He gripped the other tighter, digging his fingernails into Chanyeol’s soft skin. Victory, Baekhyun smiled viciously when he felt the other wince.

“Usually he’s the one teasing me, so I have to enjoy this time now.” Jongdae shrugged, leaning over. “To be honest, I’m still in shock.”

Jongdae received nods from around the table, all agreeing with him.

“Baekhyun, no offence. But I thought you were like the devil in disguise or something,” Sehun chuckled, tilting his head to the side. “You were always antagonising Chanyeol, the poor man.”

Chanyeol nodded his head in agreement from the side. He was still holding Baekhyun’s hand, turning the smaller man into mush.

“I agree, you were. Good thing you like me so much now,” Chanyeol was the one to grin mischievously at him now, causing Baekhyun to dig his fingernails into the other’s hand once more.

He gave him a scowl, trying to make it playful so the others wouldn’t think he was actually annoyed.

“I only like your cock. Lucky for you I like small things,” Baekhyun responded, smiling innocently.

The table erupted in raucous laughter as Baekhyun continued to smile innocently, squeezing the other’s hand in triumph. From his memory of sitting on the other’s lap, he definitely knew his statement was untrue. He may have called his own cock a log, but he was pretty sure the title of log-dick went straight to Park Chanyeol.

He looked towards the tall man with serenity, feeling good about his snarky comeback. But then he caught sight of something  _extra_  in Chanyeol’s gaze, something he could not distinguish and his good feelings vanished, wary.

“Do you want me to tell them what you wear for me in bed?” The glint increased and Baekhyun’s own eyes narrowed.

“You wouldn’t,” he glared at the man. He didn’t know where Chanyeol was going with this. Baekhyun didn’t wear  _anything_ for the man in bed. Wait. No. He meant, they didn’t even take each other to bed, so Chanyeol would have no idea what he liked to wear. That meant the other was making shit up and Baekhyun was half afraid.

“Oh I would~” Chanyeol responded, his smile telling the world just how much of a little shit he was.

“You wouldn’t, sweet pea,” Baekhyun grinned back at him, face reaching closer towards the other. He glared him down, eyes narrowing for full glaring potential, hoping Chanyeol would back off.

“Maybe I would, sweet pea,” Chanyeol crooned, moving his face closer.

They had let go of each other’s hands, a simple matter that Baekhyun was grateful for. Honestly, he wasn’t sure he was able to think properly when he had those giant bear paws wrapped around him. Except now, things were worse because Chanyeol’s face was dangerously close to his. Baekhyun could see the tiny flecks of brown in the other’s irises. They were quite pretty. Chanyeol had nice eyes.

No, wait. Not pretty. They were brown and looked like whirling diarrhoea. Yes, good. That was what they looked like.

Baekhyun was so close to him, he could see the way Chanyeol’s hair fell into his eyes, draping over his forehead like a curtain. His nose was long and shapely, curving slightly at the tip and his lips? His precious lips looked soft and plump, a little thin but kissable. Definitely kissable.

And it seemed like that was going to happen again.

For some reason they just kept gravitating towards each other like magnets, some north pole south pole shit. Maybe this had something to do with those attraction forces again. Something about the way in which atoms lost electrons or something. With the way Chanyeol was staring at him, face moving even closer into Baekhyun’s sphere, the older was pretty sure he was losing something more than just electrons. And that was his sanity.

“Get a room,” Sehun yelled from the side of the table. It was Sehun’s loud comment that shocked Baekhyun out of his reverie.

He sat back down on his seat, almost without a clue in the world. How the heck did that happen  _again_? Why did they nearly kiss  _again_?  _He hated kissing people in public_.

It infuriated him to think he was suddenly hot for Chanyeol because he wasn’t. The man was the most annoying creature on the planet, so why was Baekhyun constantly jumping on his dick? He gave the other a subtle glance from the corner of his eyes and saw him relaxed and composed. All fine and dandy, like he wasn’t just about to kiss Baekhyun. Or even if he did, like that was no problem at all.

Was it all just Baekhyun leaning forward? Was Chanyeol just responding for the sake of pretending once again? It both angered and embarrassed him that he couldn’t keep emotions under control, that he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to kiss the other. There was some attraction there. Even if the attraction was unwanted, it was attraction nonetheless.

It seemed as though Chanyeol was not affected by the attraction at all. He sat there in his seat with a tiny smile on his face, a little happy and a little mischievous. Even just the sight of it made Baekhyun’s stomach churn unpleasantly. Nothing. He wasn’t affected at all. It looked like he was enjoying Baekhyun’s pain.

He probably was. He was probably just playing Baekhyun now for having to put up with him for all these years.

Just the thought made Baekhyun feel a little insecure, and he sat back in his chair with a sigh. Everyone else seemed like they were having a good time with each other, warming up despite being on practically opposite ends in the beginning. He saw Kyungsoo laugh a little shyly when Kai talked to him, and it was this that made Baekhyun smile a little.

He was doing this for Kyungsoo. This was all for Kyungsoo. And if it was for Kyungsoo, then he was going to go along with Chanyeol all while he tried to stop his feelings from coming to the surface. After all, he hated the boy.

Didn’t he?

“Let’s go out for dinner and watch that new alien movie tomorrow! I heard it was good,” Baekhyun heard Chanyeol speak from beside him. “We should get to know each other more.”

Baekhyun vaguely noted the short nods coming from Jongdae and Kyungsoo, both of them seeming to have enjoyed their time with the others. Kai and Sehun looked pleased as well and Baekhyun wondered just when this tentative relationship had formed.

“That sounds awfully date-ish, Chanyeol,” Kai noted with raised eyebrows.

Chanyeol just shrugged and grabbed Baekhyun’s hand again, his grip almost bruising.

“Guess I have someone to date now.”

Baekhyun sat in his seat, heart heavy, letting the other squeeze his fingers so hard he was unsure whether or not they were going to snap off.

Tomorrow. By the looks on the others’ faces, he was going to have to put up this front again. However, he was going to make sure he was unaffected by it all, stony and aloof.  

He didn’t like Chanyeol and he was going to have to convince his body that too.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello - sorry for practically nothing happening this chapter, oops. there was so much random nonsense lol. anyway, i'm going interstate for a few days and won't be able to update for a little while. sorry about that - hope you enjoyed this though~ <3


	4. the movies

“Don’t tell me you’re seriously stuck wondering what to wear?”

Unfortunately for Baekhyun, Jongdae was correct. There was a pile of clothes strewn all over the bedroom, a flurry of jeans and crinkled shirts laid haphazardly like a clothing battle zone. Honestly, it looked as though a tornado had blown through, destroying the place whole. There was even a shirt on top of the dresser. Baekhyun wasn’t exactly sure how it got there.

And so, it was with the sigh of a very tired person that Baekhyun sat on the bed with his head in his hands. He curled his fingers through his hair, groaning in embarrassment.

“Does Kyungsoo know what he’s going to wear?” Baekhyun asked in the direction of Jongdae, not even looking up from the pile of clothes he didn’t want to clean up.

Jongdae was laying on his own bed, bright light of the screen illuminating his handsome face. Unlike Baekhyun, he had been ready for a while now, hair combed back neatly from his face.

“Not sure? I can text him. Don’t think he would be as freaked out as you, though.”

That was probably true, Baekhyun grumbled inwardly. He held up a pair of ripped black skinny jeans, observing it through the mirror in their room. He quickly slipped off his pants and put them on, turning his body to see just how good his ass looked in them.

It sat well on his backside and Baekhyun could see the way it emphasized the little curves he had. Maybe he should wear this one.

“Dae, how about—”

“Holy shit,” Jongdae let out a chuckle.

Baekhyun brought his attention away from just how good his ass looked towards Jongdae who was still lying carelessly on the bed. He looked up from his phone and giggled once more, smile so bright it could’ve killed someone.

“Kyungsoo is actually stuck with deciding what to wear, I can’t believe this. He’s asking us to come and help him out.”

Letting out a laugh of his own, Baekhyun ran his fingers through his hair, watching the strands flop boringly. Seems like he wasn’t the only one stressed about this ‘outing’.

“Okay let’s help but first tell me. Do these look good?”

Baekhyun stuck his ass out, waving it around like he had a hula-hoop around him. Jongdae reached over and gave him a playful ass slap.

“Looking sexy Kim Kardashian,” Jongdae replied, turning towards his hand. “When did your butt get so big though?”

Baekhyun looked at it in the mirror again, seeing the way it jutted out. It  _did_ seem bigger than the last time he looked at it, but Baekhyun wasn’t sure if he was just being hopeful. If Jongdae was able to tell a difference though, then maybe it was.

“Squats, my love,” Baekhyun responded, picking up the white buttoned-down short-sleeve shirt and placing it over him. “My butt is bigger, isn’t it?”

“It’s beautiful. Round just like the peach emoji,” Jongdae answered without looking at him, attention stuck entirely on his phone.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, ogling himself in the mirror. He looked pretty good, he thought. His clothes accentuated his slim body, falling delicately and in all the right places. The only thing he was somewhat unhappy about was his hair, and he groaned when Jongdae pulled him out of the room, flittering his fingers through his untouched up locks.

“Stop whining, princess. It’s not like this is a date or anything,” Jongdae turned his face towards Baekhyun. “Oh wait, it is for you.”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, hands still stuck within his hair. “Good one. You know Kyungsoo likes Kai, right?”

They had been walking relatively fast towards Kyungsoo’s dorm which was located at the end of the hallway. By the time Baekhyun’s sentence seemed to have made sense to Jongdae, the other was frozen outside Kyungsoo’s door. He turned his head towards Baekhyun with an extremely surprised look on his face, borderline dumbstruck. Baekhyun let out a laugh at the sight, giggling behind a palm.

“Why don’t people tell me these things?” He asked in surprise, eyes locking on Baekhyun. He sent Baekhyun a somewhat betrayed look.

Shrugging, Baekhyun calmed down and placed his hands within the front pockets of his pants. “Seemed pretty obvious to me.”

Obvious was an understatement. Every time they were in the library, Kyungsoo always stared at Kai like he was the light in this dark world. Like Kai invented the cure for cancer and saved 100 starving kids single-handedly. Baekhyun was half worried that the other’s eyes were going to pop out of his head whenever Kai was spotted.

Jongdae shook his head, snorting. “Well dude, I don’t have your gaydar. How didn’t I see you and Chanyeol’s thing?”

Well, jokes on Jongdae because Baekhyun hadn’t even seen that. It wasn’t like he could go and suddenly out their secret though, so he just shrugged.

They turned towards the door of Kyungsoo’s room, knocking on the surface and waiting outside patiently. Kyungsoo’s roommate Joonmyun, who preferred to be known by the name  _Suho_ , opened the door.

His eyes lit up at the sight of the two, sighing loudly in relief.

“Thank God you guys are here. He’s been going wild, I’m kinda afraid,” Suho whispered to them, sticking his head out of the door. His eyes looked half-crazed himself, like he was being forced to review each and every outfit Kyungsoo threw at him.

Baekhyun snorted a little, knowing just how insane Kyungsoo got when a potential date was involved. The small man wasn’t like most people who got frustrated when they were unable to find something that matched. No, Kyungsoo reverted to become the  _devil_ , getting frustrated at not only himself but whoever was in the room. Poor Suho looked like he was about to drop dead on the spot and Jongdae patted him on the arm, consoling the unfortunate soul.

“It’s okay man, we’re here now. You can breathe a little.”

Suho looked happier, but he still seemed a little wary, letting both of them in with an ever louder sigh.

Baekhyun looked inside, noting the spatial differences between this and their own room. Nothing really varied in terms of how the room was laid out, except for the difference in terms of neatness and how theirs really lacked that specific (but important) aspect. When his eyes caught the sight of Kyungsoo staring evilly into his closet, Baekhyun let out a brisk laugh.

“You look good in what you have on,” he said as soon as he saw the other filing through a pile of mismatched clothes.

He was being honest though, not just the want to leave the place as soon as possible making him speak. He eyed the way Kyungsoo’s denim jacket fell over his white t-shirt, fitting him well, not overly classy but chic. He looked good and Baekhyun was ready to get the fuck out of there.

There was excitement and nervousness bubbling through his veins, just like how he would feel if this was an actual first date. He tried to convince himself that it was for Kyungsoo and Kai, that what he was feeling was just inevitable overprotective friend feelings. He wanted Kyungsoo to be happy and this might be his big break.

Then he thought about the kiss he shared with  _Chanyeol_  and suddenly his feelings weren’t so innocent.

Baekhyun took a deep breath in and tried to calm himself. There wasn’t going to be any of that today. The whole ‘getting lost within feelings’ nonsense. He was going to be the best pretend boyfriend and he was going to do it just like Chanyeol. Aloof and unaffected. That seemed to be the best way to deal with the whole situation.

However, when Baekhyun caught a quick glance of his dolled up self, charcoal-lined eyes and all, he ignored the lingering feeling in his gut that told him he was way in over his head.

*~*

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo had known each other since middle school, but only really started talking in early high school when Kyungsoo had stolen this-guy-that-Baekhyun-hated’s pencil case and wrote  _Do Kyungsoo_ over it with pristine lettering. Baekhyun had watched it all with bright eyes and a cheery smile, coming up after class and giving him a sneaky high five. Apparently the guy had been taking Kyungsoo’s pencils all year without giving any of them back and Kyungsoo thought this was perfect retribution.

In Baekhyun’s eyes, he could’ve stooped down even lower and went to even greater lengths, because the guy was practically the devil (reasons unknown to Kyungsoo still to this day) but he decided that it was good enough. The two became good friends fast, enjoying each other’s snarky commentary and lax attitude towards school.

Looking back on it now, Baekhyun still wondered why it took so long for them to admit to each other that they were gay. It wasn’t like Baekhyun was the most private person, oftentimes caught mid-glance staring at that one senior, Kris. To be fair to Baekhyun though, the guy was probably the hottest dude he had ever seen, golden hair and winning smile.

“You know Kris goes to our university?” Kyungsoo had told him once during first year and Baekhyun all but drooled over his table at the thought of the other being older and even  _more_ handsome.

Kyungsoo was a lot more subtle than Baekhyun, a  _lot_ more subtle. Like if subtly was a thing that could be seen then Kyungsoo’s ‘subtly’ would be practically transparent. His glances weren’t long and drawn out like Baekhyun’s and he definitely never stuck his tongue out like a dog in the middle of a desert thirsting for water. Not that Baekhyun ever did that of course.

It was all due to certain circumstances, very particular instances that only made sense when Baekhyun pieced it together, that he managed to figure out Kyungsoo had a crush on their beautiful fellow student, Yixing. It was with the way his eyes tended to linger on the older boy whenever he caught sight of him in the hallways; how he sometimes became shy around the other; and how he definitely wore his most fitting pair of school pants on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays – the days they both shared their physics class together.

It was because he observed this behaviour so intently that Baekhyun had noticed it  _this_  time. Now he noticed Kyungsoo’s eyes lingering on  _Kim Jongin_  in the library, flicking downwards whenever the handsome boy walked past him. Suddenly during their library outings, Kyungsoo started wearing his own version of skin-tight jeans and Baekhyun knew.

He knew.

They were getting on fine tonight, Baekhyun noted, watching Kyungsoo’s smile light up happily when Kai told a joke to both him and Jongdae.

“I think our plan is working,” Baekhyun heard a deep voice murmur from behind.

He turned around to face the other despite knowing who it was already, crossing his arms together.

“Oh, it’s you,” Baekhyun replied, deadpanned, flicking his gaze from the other’s sneaker-covered feet towards his expressive face. He looked good, Baekhyun thought absentmindedly, observing the way Chanyeol’s shirt hugged his biceps.

“Aw, sweetie, you don’t look so happy to see me,” Chanyeol smiled cheekily and Baekhyun wanted to step on his foot. “Not as happy as you were yesterday of course.”

Fighting the urge to blush, Baekhyun rolled his eyes and tried to maintain the act of mere indifference. He turned towards the others again, not wanting to be betrayed by any facial expressions. The kiss lingered in his mind and he squashed any want or urge to do it all again.

“Oh sorry  _sweetie_ , my  _sugar plum_.” Baekhyun’s voice was the epitome of sarcasm, bordering on mild dislike. “I should be happier since I don’t need to have your tongue down my throat again.”

“My tongue-!” Chanyeol blurted out in surprise, moving forward to intercept Baekhyun’s vision of the happy foursome. The tall boy’s eyebrows twitched, arms crossing unhappily. “You were the one that attacked me, if I remember correctly.”

“Well then you aren’t remembering correctly,” Baekhyun responded, turning his gaze away from the other and biting the soft skin of his lip to stop the hot flush rising to his cheeks. If he blushed now then he was done for. Technically Chanyeol was correct but it wasn’t like he was ever going to admit that.

“Who was the one who was rocking on my lap?” Chanyeol shot back, moving further in front of Baekhyun so he wouldn’t be able to look away.

Unfortunately for Baekhyun, Chanyeol was  _way_ too close now and he was unable to look at anything but the man’s huge body. His eyes glided past the other’s dark grey muscle t-shirt, down towards to his slim-fitting jeans, inwardly groaning at just how handsome he looked. For some reason, just seeing how good he looked made him feel tiny threads of annoyance once more, and he scoffed a little at the sight.

Just the image of Chanyeol’s pants reminded him of a significant little-no, ‘big’ thing that happened yesterday and he replied to the other with a raised eyebrow.

“Who was the one who got hard?”

Chanyeol coughed loudly, spluttering helplessly at the words, staggering and almost falling onto Baekhyun in surprise. He looked so shocked like he could hardly believe Baekhyun said the words and the smaller of the two grinned evilly.

Before the tall boy could get his choking under control, Kai bounded over and wrapped an arm around Chanyeol’s neck.

“Chanyeol, why are you dying?” He asked, tilting his head to the side.

Baekhyun shot a quick glance towards Kyungsoo who was looking peaceful and happy. When he brought his gaze up, he caught Jongdae’s eyes and smiled cheekily at the other, flicking between him and Kyungsoo so Jongdae could know what’s up.

He could vaguely hear Chanyeol still coughing/choking/whatever he was doing in the background, and went towards the other, wrapping an arm around his waist. He patted Chanyeol’s stomach, trying to not think of the hard abdominal muscles he could somewhat feel underneath.

“He was trying to tell a joke, but choked on his own spit. The poor guy. He’s okay though,” Baekhyun said as genuinely as possible. Which really wasn’t all that genuine when he thought about it, wide grin and bright mischievous eyes.

He just couldn’t help it. Chanyeol made him look like a fool yesterday so it was his turn today. That was all there was to it.

When Kai looked appeased, Baekhyun gave Chanyeol one last squeeze which probably looked comforting and consolatory to all who were around them. In reality, it was somewhat mocking and apparently Chanyeol thought so too when he gave Baekhyun a hot glare in response.

Smiling happily, Baekhyun jumped towards Jongdae and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. He liked being the one who had the last word.

*~*

When they finally entered the cinema, two servings of large popcorn and all, Baekhyun found himself sitting right next to Chanyeol on the opposite side of all his friends. It wasn’t like he expected any different, knowing that either way he was going to end up with Chanyeol on his side, but he thought at the very least he would have either Jongdae or Kyungsoo to himself. Heck, he wouldn’t even complain if Kai or Sehun were next to him, buffering the awkwardness that Baekhyun knew was sure to follow.

However, life sucked and apparently fate just wanted him to talk to Chanyeol – or ignore him, if the way the previews were going was saying anything. The giant was lucky, sitting next to Sehun, giggling happily and rather immaturely (in Baekhyun’s opinion) to every advertisement that popped up on the screen.

They spent too much time in the lobby of all places, finding themselves short of seats when they entered the cinema, only managing to catch two rows of 3 seats next to each other. Baekhyun was about to go and sit with Kyungsoo and Jongdae before the two of them forced him to sit with Chanyeol, obviously expecting the  _cute boyfriends_ to catch a cheeky makeout session in the dim lighting of the movie theatre.

Well jokes on them because he  _wasn’t_ going to have any sort of cheeky makeout sessions now in the dark cinema nor at any other place in the future. Or at least, that's what he hoped.

Jongdae, who was now apparently on Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s team of wanting to get Kyungsoo and Kai together, asked if Kai wanted to sit with them and that was all she wrote.

Baekhyun probably would’ve been happy with the progress, especially when he briefly saw a glimpse of two twin elbows on the arm rests, touching each other briefly, if Chanyeol just stopped laughing  _so fucking loudly_.

“Can. You. Shut. Up.” Baekhyun hissed through gritted teeth, flicking his gaze towards the happy boy who sat next to him.

Chanyeol popped a few pieces of popcorn in his mouth, chewing loudly and cocking his head to the side. He looked somewhat happy at Baekhyun’s irritation and that only caused Baekhyun to want to complain even more.

“I can princess, but why would I do that?”

“Because you’re so loud and you’re disturbing everyone in this theatre.”

Sitting up further, Chanyeol rotated his head around to look at the other patrons. When he turned back towards Baekhyun, he sent him a smug smile.

“Sorry princess, looks like you’re the only one here who’s even just a  _little_ bit annoyed.”

Baekhyun gritted his teeth even further, fist clenching on the side of the seat. He watched through slitted eyes, feeling like a snake who was ready to hiss the fuck out and maybe even bite Chanyeol, mumbling angrily as the other continued to eat away unperturbedly.

The smooth glide of Chanyeol’s jawline had him somewhat entranced by the end of the 15th commercial, angrily observing just how angular the other’s facial features seemed to be. Why did all the annoying ones have to be so hot?

“Just shut up,” Baekhyun replied pathetically, sitting back into his seat with a long groan. Guess he lost that one.

“Are you guys having a lovers spat?”

Baekhyun heard Sehun speak up from besides Chanyeol, the other not even moving his attention away from the large screen.

“The only thing I heard was Baekhyun saying shut up but considering he said that to Chanyeol, I wasn’t sure if it was just normal conversation or not.”

Chanyeol shook his head, placing the popcorn in between his legs and grabbing Baekhyun’s hand within his own. The smaller man could feel the salt on the other’s fingers, the gritty texture making him grimace within the dark room. It just felt so icky, if he could say icky with a straight face, salt granules sliding coarsely along his clean skin.

“No, Baekhyun was just saying how much he loved me and I said he was so sentimental, he couldn’t help but say shut up. Poor Baek-honey was just embarrassed. He loves me so much,” Chanyeol replied smoothly, nodding and smiling along.

Sehun raised his head and looked between the two of them, forcing Baekhyun to smile (which he was sure turned out to look like he had constipation) and not glower angrily at the tall boy.

“Wow. That was sickly sweet. I may throw up,” Sehun said, eyes wide open. He continued to stare at the two of them before sitting back in his chair, mute.

“Ha ha ha, Chanyeol is just  _amazing_ , isn’t he Sehun? Just the most  _wonderful_ ,” he hissed the word out so much it almost became incomprehensible, “and  _thoughtful_ guy.”  

“Um, I guess…” Sehun responded. He sounded unsure like he was maybe picking up on the fact that Baekhyun wasn’t exactly being the most honest here. Or maybe he was just unsure if Chanyeol was the most amazing, wonderful and thoughtful guy. Baekhyun hoped it was the second.

“I know I am,” Chanyeol replied smugly, puffing out his chest, unaffected.

Baekhyun ripped his hand away from Chanyeol and brought his foot out, stomping on the other’s toe. He purposefully dropped his wallet onto the ground at the same time, making a noise of fake surprise just as Chanyeol’s loud squeak of pain was heard.

“Oops! Dropped my wallet,” Baekhyun smiled, reaching over to pick the leather off the ground, ignoring the way Chanyeol’s foot twitched in pain.

He sat up with a pleased grin on his face, holding the wallet in between his fingers and stretching his body. He managed to look just every bit of smug satisfaction he felt, knowing he probably oozed haughty arrogance, and couldn’t be bothered to feel even the slightest bit annoyed. Just the sight of Chanyeol scowling, rubbing his foot on the side of the chair made him grin in happiness, feeling so daring he winked at Sehun, even more satisfied when he saw the other blush slightly.

When he sat back down on his seat, Chanyeol moved over and rested his head on Baekhyun’s shoulder, lips brushing the shell of his ear slightly. He blamed the resulting shiver he suffered as being from the cold of the aircon and not due to anything  _or_ anyone else.

“You think you’re so suave, stepping on my foot and pretending that it never happened.”

Somehow, when Chanyeol whispered, his voice managed to get even deeper if that was possible. Maybe his vocal cords were handcrafted by God, Baekhyun thought absentmindedly, head a bit hazy. Baekhyun wasn’t sure how that even worked and he inwardly cursed his body for reacting to the sound, deep bass wafting over him like smooth chocolate and making him feel loose and uneven.

What was even worse was the way Chanyeol’s lips brushed over his ear, making the cartilage tingle repeatedly, the area almost pulsating as a result.

Baekhyun licked his lips, clearing his throat and hoping he didn’t look affected by Chanyeol. He turned to face the other, trying to ignore the fact that Chanyeol’s face was only a few centimetres away from his own.

“What are you talking about? My fingers were slippery from all the  _salt_ you left on them. My wallet dropped and I had to pick it up. That’s all that happened,” Baekhyun replied simply, putting on an innocent tone that he knew Chanyeol would both see and hear through.

He pouted a little, curving his lips and looking through his thick eyelashes, wanting to look as meek as possible. Baekhyun observed the way Chanyeol’s eyes flickered all over his face, landing on his lips for a split second before flicking back up towards Baekhyun’s innocent eyes.

“Is it now?” Chanyeol breathed and Baekhyun could feel the hot breaths on his lips.

The tall boy’s voice was so deep and husky, the whispers sending slight shivers through Baekhyun’s frame. He wanted to feel angry that Chanyeol could make him feel this way, that his voice could make him lose focus on everything that he was trying to do, but all he could do was stare back into Chanyeol’s coffee-coloured eyes, letting his tongue out to dab slightly at his lip.

It was this movement that caused Chanyeol to flick his gaze back towards Baekhyun’s lips, watching the pink tongue dart back in. Suddenly, the atmosphere felt different and Baekhyun knew that it wasn’t just them being passive-aggressive towards each other anymore. Something had changed now, with the way Chanyeol’s eyes were glued on Baekhyun’s lips, with the way his breath continued to fan hotly all over Baekhyun’s face.

And it was with the sensual moves of a serial seducer, mind so hazy he could hardly think past what his limbs were doing, that Baekhyun trailed his tongue out, licking from one side of his bottom lip and moving the wet muscle to the other side with one big stripe.

Chanyeol’s eyes followed the movement fervently, watching intently as Baekhyun continued to move his tongue and wet his lips, channelling his inner porn star.

Just watching Chanyeol stare so absorbedly at his mouth made him feel on top of the world. He liked that Chanyeol seemed so enraptured at just the sight of him, of his tongue lolling out against his lips. Continuing to stare at him through his eyelashes, Baekhyun gave Chanyeol the sultriest gaze he could pull off, hoping his dolled-up self, complete with eyeliner, was able to make Chanyeol drool.

Baekhyun didn’t want to think of why he wanted Chanyeol falling in lust with him. Didn’t want to think of why he wanted Chanyeol groaning about how hot he was. It was because then he would have Chanyeol on a string, right? That was why he wanted Chanyeol to just move and slot their lips together… right?

He forced himself to break away, to sit back in his chair and swallow the weird feelings away, hoping to put past that moment just like everything else he has managed to look past. In reality, the time it took for them to live through the sexual tension was hardly anything. A mere few seconds to an average bystander, watching from the outside.

To Baekhyun though, it was something else, and it made his stomach churn uneasily as he sat back in his seat, not wanting to look at Chanyeol.

“Anyway,” Chanyeol said without difficulty, like the past minute had not even occurred. His mind was still focused on Baekhyun stepping on his foot because  _of course it was_. “Could you not step on my foot again? My toes can’t handle your bitchy attitude.”

 _The feet_.  _His toes_. Chanyeol was so indifferent to everything that had happened because he didn’t give a  _shit_  about Baekhyun. He didn’t give two shits that there was unbridled lust between them. Maybe Chanyeol did this all the time that he became so immune to it. So immune it hardly fazed him anymore. Baekhyun didn’t know why that seemed to make him hurt a little.

Trying to swallow thickly, Baekhyun pretended to ignore the other’s statement and placed his hands on the flesh of his thighs. God, he was so fucked.  

 


	5. turning point

The movie was rather uneventful as were all alien moves in Baekhyun’s opinion. He would’ve much rather preferred to see the latest animation movie because have you seen 3D graphics nowadays? How could blood-splatter and alien guts even compare? Whatever, though. Chanyeol had seemed to really like it, eyes wide and popcorn stuffed in his face. Not that Baekhyun would ever admit it, but he had  _maybe_ stared at the taller boy for longer periods of time than the movie itself. He couldn’t help it. The boy looked like an alien too, or at least that was what he tried to convince himself the whole 'staring business' was about. 

Besides the awkward happenings before the movie, Chanyeol did not make one move towards him for the rest of the flick. There was no elbow touching, no hand touching, no arm-around-shoulder kind of thing going on. Baekhyun had sat there waiting for anything, even just the faintest touch to see if Chanyeol had been paying any attention to him.

No.

Nothing. He was glued to the movie, alien birth and all. Maybe the sick dude got off on stuff like that. Baekhyun should be glad that the guy did not pay him any attention.

“Did you enjoy it?” Chanyeol asked, turning his head to the side.

The lights had only just started to turn back on, end-credits rolling. Letting out a yawn so loud he was somewhat sure that the citizens in China could hear it, Baekhyun gave Chanyeol a look.

“Did that tell you how much I enjoyed it? That was the shittest thing I’ve seen in my life. I see why you like that sort of stuff.”

Chanyeol let out a cynical laugh, hand still stuck in the bag of popcorn. His face reverted from its original expression of smiley happiness to something that was less cheerful. Something that looked like disappointment.

“Wow,” Chanyeol snorted bitterly, giving Baekhyun a once over. “You don’t always have to be such a spoil-sport.”

The comment hit Baekhyun the wrong way and his eyebrows crossed unhappily at the words. Chanyeol turned away to face Sehun, engaging him in a conversation and ignoring Baekhyun entirely. His words however, continued to drift past Baekhyun who sat still in his seat, stomach somewhat aching.

He didn’t know why it seemed to hurt that Chanyeol thought of him as a spoil-sport. He honestly didn’t like the movie. It just wasn’t his ‘thing’, you know? Like alien movies were for some people but they weren’t for Baekhyun. That was just human nature, wasn’t it?

It really didn’t make sense at all for Baekhyun to feel so weird inside. Chanyeol’s words weren’t even that mean. Heck, they were just average-mean sounding. In the past, Baekhyun had spat many scathing remarks towards and about Chanyeol’s person. Thousands of comments. Millions even. Maybe.

He’d caused the other a lot of pain. So why was he hung up over a stupid comment?

“Hey, did you like the movie?” Jongdae wrapped an arm around his shoulder, bringing him close to his chest.

They had relocated towards the lobby now. Everyone was chatting happily bar Baekhyun who was still feeling mopey for no real reason. He briefly saw Kyungsoo and Kai standing next to each other and released a fleeting smile. Like smiles were something that had to be released from the dungeon. Which they weren’t. Smiles should come easily, not like this.

“It was okay,” Baekhyun mumbled unhappily.

He shot a glance towards Chanyeol who was standing tall next to Sehun, elbow resting on the similarly tall boy’s shoulder. Unlike in the past, Chanyeol didn’t look the happiest himself. There were creases in his eyebrows, tiny and faint, but there. He looked vexed by something and Baekhyun’s heart beat a little faster at the thought of the unhappiness being because of him.

“What’s wrong?” Jongdae was perceptive enough to catch Baekhyun’s dull mood. He wrapped both arms around him now, known for being touchy-feely at all times. Pulling Baekhyun closer, he rested in chin on a fleshy trapezius, eyes boring directly into Baekhyun.

“Nothing,” Baekhyun shook his head slightly, resting on Jongdae. He sighed a little, wrapping an arm around his friend’s waist and holding on tight.

“I know there’s something wrong so spill it out.” Jongdae waited patiently, letting out a somewhat ‘come on, you can do it’ smile. 

He stood there for a few moments, mentally debating whether or not it was a good idea to ‘spill it out’ before throwing caution to the wind. He turned his head to the side, eyes widening in dejection.

“Am I a spoil-sport, Chennie?” Baekhyun asked, letting his lips form into their natural pout.

“Where did you get that nonsense from?” Jongdae rubbed his palm over Baekhyun’s hair, messing up the locks even further. To be honest, Baekhyun hadn’t really done anything special to his hair so it wasn’t anything to get upset over, but he still grumbled a bit.

“A little birdy told me,” he confessed, eyes trailing the length of Chanyeol’s figure. “I do get grumpy, don’t I?”

Jongdae cocked his head to the side, tsk-ing slightly.

“Not really. You used to around Chanyeol, but that’s changed now, hasn’t it?” Jongdae smiled at him, the corners of his lips happily turning upwards. “I’m glad you got over your irrational hatred.”

Well, that only made Baekhyun feel even worse. He wasn’t over  _any_ ‘irrational hatred’. Firstly because Chanyeol was still annoying as ever and secondly because it wasn’t even irrational. There was a reason behind his hatred. He knew there was. Maybe?

“Great,” Baekhyun mumbled out with a sigh.

He pulled away from Jongdae and stared in the direction of the others. Baekhyun had never really thought about his hatred for Chanyeol before, something that had been ingrained in him since his early teenage years. It was just a fact of life, you know? One of those things that Baekhyun just deemed as being inescapable. The fact that he hated Chanyeol was inevitable, probably written in the stars or something.

Baekhyun snorted at the thought of there being some Baekhyun-hates-Chanyeol constellation. Imagine that. How cool would it be to have your own constellation? Maybe Baekhyun should get onto looking up about that…

\--Hating Chanyeol, yes, he hated Chanyeol. But  _why_ did he hate him? Was it because he was so loud?

Baekhyun flicked his eyes towards the tall boy standing next to Sehun. He had his arm wrapped around the younger’s shoulder now, looking perfectly calm. Or at least, calm enough. He wasn’t doing anything that was overly annoying, standing still like a handsome statue. The statue of David if said statue had a bigger dick. Not that Baekhyun was counting the inches or anything. (it was bigger than 6 inches)

Chanyeol wasn’t always loud and if Baekhyun dared to admit it, he was pretty loud himself. Sometimes, Baekhyun didn’t have the most tact, finding himself in inappropriate situations and accidentally hurting people’s feelings. He had an inkling that Chanyeol had a similar problem.

What if Baekhyun had stepped up during high school and asked Chanyeol if it would be a good idea that the two loud mouths stuck together? What would’ve happened then? Would Chanyeol be a part of his friend group? Would Chanyeol, dare he say it, be his best friend?

“Oi Baek,” the man in question called out.

Chanyeol still didn’t look entirely happy, but for some reason that made Baekhyun feel better. At least the guy wasn’t always composed. That one small factor was getting on his nerves.

“Hey,” Baekhyun shuffled over towards the group. They were all huddling together bar Jongdae who had left to use the bathroom. Both Kai and Kyungsoo had large grins on their faces, which really said something considering how little Kyungsoo’s facial features worked in the happiness department. Nonetheless, they stood next to each other, grins almost blinding, and Baekhyun’s face relaxed happily.

“What do you want to eat?” Chanyeol asked, his voice a bit softer now. The way he was looking at Baekhyun made the smaller man feel slightly unnerved, staring at the soft look combined with an even softer voice.

He wasn’t used to Chanyeol being nice, and the fact that the man was easing up despite previously being mad at him made Baekhyun confused.

“Um, I don’t know. What do you guys want?” He turned towards the rest, swinging his head to the side. Putting his hands in the pockets of his pants, he hoped he pulled off a look of ‘pure casualness’. That’s what he was trying to be, at least. Casual and all. How fun.

“I ate so much popcorn, I’m not sure if I can eat anything else,” Kai rested a hand on his stomach and groaned painfully.

Kyungsoo punched him in the arm, snickering happily. “You mean you stole so much popcorn.”

“Eat, steal, do we need to put labels on everything?” Kai teased, looking at the smaller man with a happy gaze.

“You’re an idiot,” Kyungsoo laughed once more and Baekhyun’s heart warmed at the sight.

Feeling a nudge in the side of his ribs, Baekhyun turned towards Chanyeol who was beckoning to the scene.

“Look at this soft-core porn,” he bent down to whisper in Baekhyun’s ear. It seemed as though just looking at the happy nearly-there couple made him suddenly feel better. It didn’t seem like he was mad at Baekhyun for being such a killjoy anymore. “Aren’t we master matchmakers?”

“Hm,” Baekhyun just smiled curtly.

It’s not that he wanted to be mean or anything, smile a little off. It was just that he couldn’t get a grasp on Chanyeol and what the other stood for. One second he was sad, one second he was happy. One second he was kissing Baekhyun, the other second Baekhyun was watching him laugh with his friends.

It threw Baekhyun for a loop. He didn’t know where he stood with Chanyeol. At times, he had vaguely warm feelings for the tall boy, and at others, the complete opposite. The fact that Chanyeol was so hot and cold only made Baekhyun even more confused, which was definitely something he didn’t need on top of everything.

If only he could understand where he stood. That would help. A lot.

 

They decided on going to the closest burger joint for dinner.

“I want sliders!” Jongdae exclaimed happily, moving further into the booth with ease.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol followed after while the other three sat on the opposite side. The place was kind of poor with decoration, but the ambient atmosphere made up for everything. Baekhyun looked at the pretty fairy lights and noticed happily how they seemed to make everything so warm and cozy. Even Chanyeol looked quite ethereal under the rich glow, shadows making his face look more angular and handsome.

Not that Chanyeol wasn’t usually handsome, but Baekhyun could observe this difference from afar. Or not so afar, considering the fact that their thighs were hard pressed against each other.

Baekhyun wouldn’t mind sliders too, but then he’d probably think about the way his thighs were sliding against Chanyeol’s and that  _really_ wouldn’t help anything.

“I’ll get the lamb burger,” he decided, pitifully.

Kyungsoo and Kai were practically making moon eyes at each other on the other side of the table and Baekhyun poked Jongdae in the arm to watch the scene unfold. It was almost as sappy as a drama and Baekhyun nearly swooned when Kai poured water for the smaller man. Only the most romantic for their dear Kyungsoo.

“Chanyeol, what are you getting?” Jongdae asked from around Baekhyun. His head was pressed in between Baekhyun’s back and the seat, almost like a little groundhog popping up from its hole. It would’ve been cute if it wasn’t  _Jongdae_ , probably.

“Hmm…” the tall boy’s voice sounded rough and grumbly, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “I’m not sure. What should I get?”

Baekhyun tried to ignore the conversation that was going on behind him, because not only was it a conversation going on  _behind_ him, and that would be weird to step in on (or more lean back in, really). But also because he was still trying to figure out what was Chanyeol’s deal. It didn’t help that he looked so good under the lights and had his thighs practically squashed against Baekhyun’s. Nope, that didn’t help one bit.

“I’m not sure, Baekhyun comes here often though. Ask him,” Jongdae perked up from behind.

Baekhyun sighed as Chanyeol’s attention was once again drawn to him. Unlike before, it really did seem as though Chanyeol was still a tiny bit annoyed at him. Like if annoyance could be measured on a scale from ‘one to annoyed’ then he’d probably be around a ‘4 - slight exasperation’. Which was fair enough, Baekhyun guessed. He wondered how many years he could stand of someone yelling in his face. Not too many years, he decided when he looked up towards Chanyeol's grumbly expression.

And it was with that thought in mind that Baekhyun decided to put a smile on his face. He wasn’t able to get out of this situation anymore, and it seemed like if Kyungsoo and Kai got together, they’d be around each other all the time. Even if they ‘broke-up’ their pretend relationship, they’d still have to be  _friends_.

It wasn’t easy to put years of dislike past him though, and when he saw those somewhat disinterested eyes stare at Baekhyun himself, he had to hold his tongue to not say anything especially terrible. In time, he tried to calm himself, in time he’d feel more at ease. Probably. Hopefully.

“What do you like?” Baekhyun asked, trying to ignore the lingering feeling of dislike.

Looking at that face just made him angry for some reason, probably a result from years of loathing. He tried to stare at his bright eyes, which still had a touch of disinterest, ignoring the way his stomach churned with a mix of dislike and interest. If only dislike and interest was disinterest. It wasn’t unfortunately. It sadly was not.

“Burgers.”

Baekhyun snorted. “Thanks for being helpful.”

“I like beef,” Chanyeol shrugged, his whole body slumping over with the movement. His thighs also brushed Baekhyun’s more thoroughly as a result. Baekhyun tried not to focus on that one fact.

“Okay…” that didn’t exactly help a lot but it narrowed it down a bit.

Baekhyun scanned the menu with fresh eyes, going through the sheet one by one and waiting for Chanyeol to give the yes or no. The tall boy was surprisingly picky, much more picky than Baekhyun would’ve pegged the other being. It didn’t help that Sehun found Chanyeol being picky the  _funniest_ thing in the world. There was way too much laughter when Chanyeol decided that  _no he didn’t like beetroot, oh wait yes he did._

“Are you trying to rile me up on purpose?” Baekhyun said dryly after the third time he went through the menu.

Chanyeol sent him a heavenly smile. “Why would I ever do that?”

“Yeah, why would you,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. He was starting to get a headache.

Baekhyun was trying his hardest to not get mad, to put the smile back on and continue down the list for the fourth time now. He filed away all the ‘non-positive’ emotions, trying to hide them under a very thick guise. No way would he break to Park Chanyeol. Baekhyun was going to be named the real happy virus by the end of this date, even if the man next to him was being a little shit.

“Okay,” Baekhyun breathed out through his nose, letting his voice calm back down to its normal pitch. “Why don’t you get this one?”

He pointed to a simple beef burger with cheese and a whole lot of other toppings. It looked really scrumptious and that was just Baekhyun being honest.

He was still staring at the picture of glorious beef goodness on the shiny paper, but he could feel the gaze boring into him just as strongly. Ignoring the urge to turn and question just why Chanyeol found it necessary to burn a hole in the side of his head, Baekhyun let a smile cross his face as he breathed out once more. Only positive emotions here, happiness and serenity. Wasn’t he just the poster boy for all things positive? He’d like to think so.

“… Okay.” Chanyeol agreed after almost a minute of silence. He turned his gaze away from Baekhyun and the smaller boy let out a staggering breath.

What? It was hard to focus when he had practically the BFG staring him down like he stole the girl. Sue him.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Baekhyun’s tone was slightly mocking but he made sure it was light and friendly. Sometimes he was picky too, there was no need to get angry. There was no need—

“If only you told me to get that beforehand, we wouldn’t have needed to sit here for so long.”

There was no need to get angry, Baekhyun tried to remind himself, clenching his fingers around the cutlery that sat on the table.

“Ah…” Baekhyun breathed, ignoring the emotions that rushed up inside of him. He was practically on the edge of yelling in Chanyeol’s face, maybe even poking him with the knife that he had. Poking him and then cutting him, probably. And then  _eating—_ ok no. He was just bloodthirsty that’s all, not fleshhungry.

“It’s okay, we managed to get it in the end, didn’t we?” He replied as conversationally as possible. There was no need to kill someone today. It wasn’t like he was going to be able to clean up the body properly either, considering the fact that they were all squashed in the corner of the restaurant. Way too many witnesses.

Chanyeol was doing that staring thing again, the whole burning a hole through Baekhyun’s head. It was like he was waiting for Cyclops’ red-beams to manifest or something so then he’d be able to burn a  _literal_  hole too. It was pretty unnerving but Baekhyun chalked it up as Chanyeol just being weird as fuck. He didn’t know the dude that well, maybe this just was one of his strange tendencies? Who was he to judge?

The rest of the dinner went along relatively smoothly without too much error. Their food had come in record time, probably less time than it took Chanyeol to decide on a burger himself. It was good as always, and Baekhyun chowed down on the special rosemary and sea salt chips without a care in the world.

It seemed as though Chanyeol had liked his burger too, Baekhyun observed with a smug smile on his face and hands sticky from the food. The tall boy had started off with hesitation, eyeing the burger in suspicion but by the end of it he was licking his fingers and all.

Baekhyun felt so good, he nearly boasted about being the best chooser before he stopped himself. This was his time to be the perfect picture of purity and geniality, then Chanyeol wouldn’t have anything to complain about. So he sat there and asked politely if Chanyeol enjoyed it and wasn’t surprised when the other muttered out a soft ‘yes’.

Kyungsoo and Kai looked quite enamoured with each other by the end of the dinner too, laughing happily as they developed their own inside jokes. Unfortunately, this caused both Jongdae and Sehun to bound together and practically gag at the sight of the ‘lovey dovey’ couples, if Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s arguing could be considered ‘lovey dovey’.

Sehun had asked Jongdae if he was gay too and the small man shook his head.

“Nah, no dicks for me.”

Sehun had smiled and did a toast to that. Suddenly Kai and Kyungsoo were toasting along with him and Baekhyun felt obligated to join in before they realised what Sehun was toasting  _for_ (‘no dicks just chicks!’) which caused them to all just roll their eyes and put their glasses down.

Date-wise, it wasn’t too bad. Chanyeol was still a dick but he warmed up slightly towards the end, teasing Kyungsoo and Kai about their obvious feelings along with Baekhyun. It kinda felt like they were a team, and Baekhyun enjoyed that for some reason. Chanyeol was obviously very witty at times and it was just… pleasant.

Surprisingly pleasant.

 

It was when they were all leaving to go back to their dorms when Chanyeol cornered him.

“Hey guys, I’m gonna spend some alone time with Baekhyun, okay?” He told the others who all winked and hooted, making a big fuss about them being ‘alone’.

“Public sex is illegal!” Jongdae had told them.

“How did you fit a bottle of lube within your pants?” Sehun had asked Chanyeol.

“They have sachets, my heterosexual friend,” Chanyeol subsequently pinched Sehun’s cheeks as Baekhyun snorted loudly.

They all turned away to leave both Chanyeol and Baekhyun alone with Kai sneakily grabbing Kyungsoo’s hand in the rush of ‘goodbyes!’. Baekhyun had noticed the movement but was too shocked by the fact that Chanyeol actually wanted to spend time with him to really say anything.

Eventually, the two of them made their way out of the burger joint towards a relatively popular area, quite close to the river. Chanyeol had walked in that general direction, fairly quiet for proclaiming that he wanted to spend time with the elder, causing Baekhyun to just be overall confused.

“Hey?” He asked a little speculatively, cocking his head to the side. “What’s up?”

“Hm.” Chanyeol didn’t say anything else besides letting out a random hum, crossing the street without even waiting for Baekhyun to catch up.

“Hey!” Baekhyun jumped across, flailing behind him while looking out for cars. He didn’t want to die chasing after Chanyeol. How embarrassing would that be? Man died because he tried to chase fake boyfriend across the street. Terrible.

Unfortunately the other’s legs were just so long and Baekhyun could hardly keep up the pace, flittering behind as Chanyeol walked to stare out into the water.

The view was quite pretty, Baekhyun had to admit, watching the water flow steadily under the bright lights. Cars honked and smoke bogged like a bad haze, but none of that managed to hinder the image of Chanyeol standing next to the water, staring out with a somewhat troubled expression on his face. He looked unsure and Baekhyun hurried to stand next to him, gazing up to see what was wrong.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He asked, eyebrows furrowing. Now that Chanyeol actually seemed sad, or at least a little more troubled than usual, all angered thoughts left Baekhyun's mind. Maybe there was something actually wrong with the guy, but Baekhyun didn’t know why that made himself feel sad. He decided to peg it on being an all-round empathetic and compassionate guy.

Chanyeol didn’t respond, still staring out into the water.

“Hey,” Baekhyun bumped the other’s hip with his own, trying to get his attention. “Chan~yeol.”

He was pretty sure this was the first time he had ever said the other’s name when they were alone, and it seemed as though Chanyeol too knew this fact.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” He asked, eyebrows also furrowed. He continued to look out into the water and didn’t dare to bring his gaze down to Baekhyun.

The words only made the smaller boy speechless, unable to respond. How could he answer something like that? He didn’t even realise that Chanyeol had noticed him acting different.

“How did you…”

Chanyeol let out a snort, finally flicking his gaze towards Baekhyun, eyes in disbelief. “When have you ever been so kind before? Give me at least  _some_  credit, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun closed his mouth. That was true.

Running his fingers through his hair, Chanyeol looked so perfect, like a model, eyebrows furrowed and lips drawn into a pout. It was terribly distracting how good the other looked, shoulder muscles and arms glinting under the bright moonlight.

“I was acting like a little shit today and you were still nice.”

Baekhyun laughed a little briskly, because at least Chanyeol knew he was being a bitch. The tall boy still looked confused however, like Baekhyun acting nice to him despite him acting terribly was something that was incomprehensible.

“You were a little shit, you little shit.”

“So why were you so nice?” Chanyeol shook his head like nothing in this world made sense and Baekhyun was the one who made the least sense of it all.

Shrugging, Baekhyun replied honestly. “Because we’re going to have to stick around each other for a while. It would be worse if I was unnecessarily mean to you. Which I know I have been… maybe.”

Instead of agreeing with Baekhyun that  _yep, he had been unnecessarily mean_ , Chanyeol instead shut up and turned his head away to the side. It was like he froze, suddenly aloof and cold, almost like he didn’t even want to see Baekhyun.

The atmosphere between them instantly became awkward because Chanyeol was faced the other way and all Baekhyun could see was a t-shirt and the back of a tall boy’s head. Not a particularly welcoming sight.

What happened?

“Chanyeol?” He asked a little timidly, surprised at how standoffish the other looked.

Chanyeol cleared his throat to face him, his face drawn unhappily. He looked stressed and confused. “Is that the only reason why you were nice?”

“Um… yes?” Baekhyun responded slightly helpless, eyebrows raising even higher when the tall boy started to walk away. “Hey! Where are you going?”

“Home,” Chanyeol responded desolately, not even turning to face Baekhyun who stood still next to the river.

He watched the tall boy walk away, the weird feeling in his stomach keying him in that he did something wrong. That he made a grave mistake. But… what was it?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heya okay so like.. i suddenly got inspiration to write another baekyeol fic. it's going to be really long and i've been writing it a lot recently (it's merlin-au aka outlawed magic and snooty prince. how cool is that??) i plan to just release the whole thing in one go when im finished but idk how long that will take. anyway yeah, i'm just saying this because I will probably take a little more time to update this fic bc of it. im going to try and stick to once every 8 days, so fingers crossed i can keep that up. anyway thank you! lots of luv <3


	6. confused

Baekhyun caught the late bus back and by the time he arrived in the dormitory, Jongdae was already fast asleep. He could see the outline of his roommate resting in bed, moonlight shining on his dainty figure. Letting out a sigh, Baekhyun waddled around, running his fingers through his hair. He wasn’t really that tired, more confused than anything, and while the thought of sleep was comforting, he knew he wasn’t going to get any rest. At least for the time being anyway.

Besides the library, there weren’t many places around campus that were open at this time. The music rooms, however, were one of the few. Baekhyun wasn’t a music student like Kyungsoo and Jongdae, always too lazy to join their early morning practice sessions. Nonetheless, he still enjoyed singing.

He often came with the duo, scrambling behind them as they made their way to set up their recording equipment and start their vocal training. He mostly followed during the daytime sessions, only able to concentrate when the sun was high in the sky.

Music students worked hard though, waking early and staying until the sun went down. The west building was one of the few areas that was always open and available for the students to use. It was with this in mind that Baekhyun hastily made his way towards the brick building, feeling the coolish chill of night nip at his skin.

The walk was quiet, not a soul in sight. He could faintly see the trees swaying in the wind under paving lights, but the solitary setting only made Baekhyun feel better. At least now he would have time to think about what had occurred less than an hour ago.

Chanyeol made no sense to him. The guy was weird. So, so weird. All Baekhyun wanted to do was see what was going inside that head, because nothing made sense to him. One minute he’d do something and then the next, he’d do the complete opposite. The fact that he had run away from Baekhyun for no real reason was truly the cherry on top. Of course he’d go all hot-and-cold on . Seems like something the guy would do.

It really sucked because for the first time since he met the gangly kid in middle school, he was actually kind of starting to like him. He was still annoying as fuck, but the two of them worked well together. Or at least, well enough. Baekhyun could see actual friendship forming between them and that wasn’t just his libido talking.

He sighed as he entered the well-lit building, trying to put thoughts of Park Chanyeol away, eyeing the vacant space. There were quite a few soundproof practice rooms. One half of the building wasn’t renovated and the soundproofing was really old, so the walls were covered with this white puffy material that honestly looked like big marshmallows. In terms of getting the practice rooms, it was on a first come first serve basis and most of the time Baekhyun was forced to use the marshmallow rooms, always coming late.

He didn’t mind it though. Not as much as he probably would’ve if the one guitar guy didn’t always use them.

It turned out the soundproofing material really wasn’t as soundproof as the university claimed it to be. It wasn’t the worst, but Baekhyun could always hear at least some noise coming from the other rooms, whether it be from a soft piano keyboard or a loud clunky tuba.

It would’ve sucked if more people came to use the rooms on this side of the building. Most people stuck to the newly renovated rooms with the nicely decorated interior. As such, Baekhyun often found himself alone, singing to his heart’s content. Maybe if people realised how little these rooms were used they would be using them too instead of waiting hours until the newer rooms were free. But they didn’t and Baekhyun wasn’t quick to tell them what they were missing out on.

There was really only one person who played guitar (and sometimes the piano if the quick way they shifted between instruments rather jarringly said anything) that used the rooms. They were very talented whoever they were, constantly playing songs that Baekhyun loved. It wasn’t really a surprise when one day he started singing along with the guitar player, imagining deft fingers sliding nimbly across the strings.

The guitar playing had stopped as soon as he began to sing the Radiohead song, but the person quickly continued when Baekhyun commanded them to. After that one time, Baekhyun had found himself sitting in the music rooms listening to the player while occasionally joining along with his own singing. It was especially cathartic, enjoying the way the person played.

He had never seen this person though, something Baekhyun wasn’t sure he liked or not. It added to the mystery but Baekhyun kind of wanted to meet the guitar playing stranger. Maybe they could team up and do a duet one day or something.

Despite how often he heard the guitar player in the marshmallow rooms, he definitely didn’t expect to hear them at one-thirty am, guitar sound loud in the otherwise silent hallway. Baekhyun stood still in the brightly lit area, staring at the door to a closed room and hearing the guitar croon almost angrily in the background.

It took a little while, but eventually Baekhyun recognised the song that continued to sound loudly, like the person playing it was extremely enraged. There was a low hum that went along with the loud strumming and Baekhyun wondered if it was the person singing. He was just about to get closer to the door to listen before he heard the build-up to the chorus, opening his mouth wide. It wasn’t like he could help himself.

“’Cause nothing compares, nothing compares,” Baekhyun tweaked his voice to sound just like Sinead O’Connor had suddenly manifested in his body, scrunching his face and belting the notes, “… to you.”

The guitar playing stopped as soon as Baekhyun sang.

“Hey, don’t stop because of me!” Baekhyun protested, clearing his throat. “You’re here so late.”

Not expecting to receive a response, Baekhyun continued to sing the song he had heard since he was a child, eventually hearing the guitar continue in the background. The playing was less rough now, but that low timbre he swear he could’ve heard from before was gone. Baekhyun wanted to hear more of that.

“I don’t know why I’m here,” Baekhyun started talking after they finished the song. He was sitting on a bench that was just outside of the practice room, his legs dangling from the seat. Not usually the one to start randomly talking, he hoped the mystery player was listening. “I’m usually asleep by now, you know. I’m only awake because I'm confused about this one guy.”

He laughed a little sardonically, hanging his head. “Anyway, you probably don’t want to hear about my weird problems. Play something else! I don’t know what keys are easy to play in for guitar. Isn't E good? I can sing in E.”

He didn’t really expect a response, but what he expected even less was the groovy chords coming from the other side of the door. He frowned as he tried to place the familiar beat, not recognising the rendition. It took a few bars of playing before his eyebrows shot up in wonder.

“Is this Jamiroquai?” He asked, puzzled, but still in awe. He quickly caught up to sing the chorus, voice squeaking a little higher to match lead singer Jay Kay’s style. “She’s just a comic girl. From another galaxy. My heart’s at zero gravity.”

The guitar playing stopped again and Baekhyun swore he heard a snort coming from the person behind the door. He frowned.

“Hey! Did you not expect me to know the song? Well jokes on you, mister or miss, I am very musically cultured,” Baekhyun drawled, cocking his head to the side. “Plus Jamiroquai was really famous, so I don’t know what you were expecting.”

The playing started up again and Baekhyun grinned, singing along.

*~*

He had sat there, singing with the mystery guitar player for a good amount of time before he checked his phone and realised just how late it was. He bid his goodbyes to the stranger, quickly scampering back towards his dorm. Unfortunately, he had a class relatively early in the morning the next day and needed some sleep.

When he woke, he was feeling quite good about himself. It was always nice to catch the guitar player and sing with them, despite having no idea who they were. They managed to even make Baekhyun forget about his weird feelings for Chanyeol, which was a good thing in itself. He didn’t need to be focusing on unimportant things or people like Park Chanyeol.

Jongdae wasn’t in the room when he woke up, probably in his first class of the day. Being alone in the room let a different side of Baekhyun out, and he found himself sliding across the tiled floor of their room, singing a weird medley of all the songs he had sung last night. Not that there were many, considering how fast Baekhyun had gotten tired. He usually went to sleep early, okay. Sue him.

Unfortunately the urge to sing stopped when he continued to think about Chanyeol, immediately causing him to grumble as he took a fresh cup of coffee in his hands. He was feeling so good about himself and then Chanyeol had to suddenly pop up in his head.

Why was the tall guy so confusing? It honestly made Baekhyun mad when he thought about the tall boy. There was no need to be so unclear at all times. Baekhyun was being nice to him, why did he run away like that?

The number of times Baekhyun had replayed the conversation in his head since the whole situation happened last night was kind of insane. He was just trying to figure out what went wrong. Granted, they weren’t exactly having the best night, but Chanyeol was kind of warming up towards him by the end of it. Why did he suddenly get so jumpy?

The thought lingered with him all the way to his Politics class, during it and even after it as he walked down the paved pathway. It was truly puzzling and honestly made him feel somewhat sad. Just the idea of Chanyeol leaving him like that caused a tiny part inside of him to hurt, and he immediately wanted to squash those feelings. They really weren’t good feelings to have for Park Chanyeol of all people.

“Baek!” He heard a familiar voice call from behind.

“Kyungsoo,” he smiled, shaking his thoughts away and turning to face his friend. Suddenly, his grin turned lecherous. “So, what happened last night?”

The slightly smaller man blinked his large eyes. He looked like he was trying to remain nonchalant and Baekhyun quickly called him out on it.

“With  _Jong~in_ ,” he let the name sit in his mouth for a while, grin widening when he saw the blush on Kyungsoo’s cheeks. “Yah! I knew you liked him, you little minx!”

“Pot calling the kettle black,” Kyungsoo responded instantly, crossing his arms. He looked like he was trying to ignore the fact that his face was stained pink. “What happened with Chanyeol?”

Baekhyun waved his hand away like his relationship with Chanyeol was not as nearly as important as Kyungsoo and Kai. “That doesn’t matter. He’s my boyfriend.”

“When were you going to tell me?” Kyungsoo’s arms were still crossed.

“When were you going to tell me that you and Chanyeol had been friends in high school?” Baekhyun shot back, suddenly feeling threads of betrayal build up inside of him once again. That one fact had continued to sit on his shoulders since the tall boy had told him of their relationship.

Kyungsoo’s eyes widened at that, and he looked somewhat embarrassed.

“He even had a crush on you,” Baekhyun mumbled out, looking down unhappily.

“Wait, what?” Kyungsoo immediately started, reaching out to grab Baekhyun’s shoulder so the slightly taller boy would look at him. “He did?”

The look on Kyungsoo’s face immediately made Baekhyun feel even worse. The younger boy looked somewhat interested at the news, as though Chanyeol liking him was a  _good_ thing.

“Hey, fuck off and go for Kai,” Baekhyun responded, eyebrows crossing in—okay he’ll admit it. Jealousy.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s just…” Kyungsoo looked at him further, eyes still wide. “He really had a crush on me?”

“I don’t know how either.”

Kyungsoo pushed him in the shoulder, rolling his eyes. “Dick.”

Baekhyun had said the words teasingly, but there were still some lingering feelings of resentment brooding. Annoyance just continued to stir unhappily within him. The fact that Chanyeol had a crush on someone, even if it was in the past, made his skin crawl. He didn’t want to think about why he felt like that.

Chanyeol having a crush on  _Kyungsoo_ made it worse. That wasn’t right. It didn’t make any sense in Baekhyun’s head. They didn’t suit each other at all. Chanyeol was so loud and brash while Kyungsoo was diabolically quiet. Chanyeol needed someone who could banter back with him, not someone who would punch him repeatedly in the arm. Chanyeol didn’t need Kyungsoo, he needed…

“When did he like me?”

“Why are you so interested?” Baekhyun asked, squinting his eyes and staring the other down. “Do you like  _my_ boyfriend?”

The way he stressed the word ‘my’ would’ve been embarrassing if Kyungsoo knew that Chanyeol wasn’t actually his boyfriend. Heck, Baekhyun was embarrassed anyway. The words just came out, unable to be stopped.

“In high school, yes.”

“What?!” Baekhyun exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. He gave Kyungsoo a once over, trying to reconcile the fact that the person in front of him was his best friend and not some alien imposter.

“I never told you because I knew you hated him,” Kyungsoo shrugged like this confession wasn’t a big deal. “I’m over him now, don’t worry.”

The confirmation didn’t lessen Baekhyun’s shock and he continued to stare at his friend like he was seeing him for the first time.

Kyungsoo had liked Chanyeol in high school. Chanyeol had liked Kyungsoo.

“When?!”

“This was before Yixing, obviously.”

Obviously. But still. There was a chance that Chanyeol and Kyungsoo could have been together. The only reason why they weren’t was because Baekhyun had hated the tall boy.

For some reason, he felt kind of good about that. He was now somewhat glad that he hated Chanyeol in high school. If he hadn't then… Chanyeol and Kyungsoo could’ve been together. He really did not like the sound of that.

“Fuck dude,” Baekhyun responded, shaking his head. He felt somewhat breathless at the sudden revelation and he continued to shake his head, trying to look past it. “I’m just… wow.”

“Don’t worry about it. He’s much hotter now, but I’m not interested in him that way anymore. You really don’t have to worry about it,” Kyungsoo gave him a small smile, patting his shoulder like he was trying to console a jealous Baekhyun. Not that he was quite off the mark.

“I know. I just… okay. I’m still shocked,” Baekhyun breathed out, trying to get a hold of himself. “You like Kai now, right?”

A small smiled played at the corner of Kyungsoo’s lips. “Jongin’s… alright.”

Trying to focus on Kyungsoo and Kai, Baekhyun threw the images of the small boy and Chanyeol out of his head. “More than alright if the way you two were going at it yesterday says anything. When’s your next date?”

Kyungsoo shook his head suddenly, reaching a hand up to scratch awkwardly at the back of his head. “There’s no… date.”

“What? No way! He didn’t ask you out last night?” Baekhyun asked, surprised. He was sure with the way they were flirting yesterday that Kai was going to make a move. Heck, he was pretty sure he saw the boy holding Kyungsoo’s hand.

“No… He just said good night and that he’d see me later,” Kyungsoo frowned, looking a little sad. “I expected a kiss at the very least.”

“Wow…” Baekhyun nodded in agreement, shocked. “Maybe he wants to take it slow?”

“How slow does he want it? He didn’t even ask for my number.”

Baekhyun cringed. Wow, that sucked. He leant over and wrapped his arms around Kyungsoo’s shoulders, resting his head on the smaller boy’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry Soo… He’ll ask you out soon.”

*~*

Soon became a few days and there was still no sign of Kai. Baekhyun hadn’t seen the trio since the dinner date they had, and the guy still hadn’t asked Kyungsoo out. It was making the small boy increasingly frustrated, who released his frustrations out on his two best friends.

“Was he leading me on?”

“No way,” Jongdae responded, chips crunching in his mouth. “He was so into you.”

“Yeah, he totally was Soo,” Baekhyun agreed, letting his legs dangle over the side of the bed. “Don’t worry about it so much, okay? He’s probably busy or something.”

The three of them were cooped up in Baekhyun and Jongdae’s room, channel surfing. Kyungsoo was pacing unrelentingly through the room as the others lay flat on their respective beds, half watching the show, half watching Kyungsoo. In Baekhyun’s opinion, Kyungsoo’s current love-life was practically a drama in one cute little body.

“It’s been four days and he hasn’t approached me yet.”

“Have you even seen him since?” Baekhyun asked, stretching his body on the bed. It was Friday and they were stuck in their dorm watching crappy TV. Was this a sign for a bad weekend?

“No…” Kyungsoo admitted, looking slightly sheepish. “But he knows I’m always in the library. He should’ve approached me by now.”

Jongdae groaned loudly, hitting his head on his backboard. He threw the bag of chips further onto the bed, turning the TV off with one swift movement.

“That’s it, I can’t listen to this anymore,” Jongdae complained, looking pointedly at Kyungsoo. “I love you Soo, but I can only take three days of your whining.”

Kyungsoo stopped his pacing and looked towards Jongdae, betrayed.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Jongdae whined, putting his hands in front of his eyes to cover the sight of Kyungsoo looking so wrecked. “There’s that party tonight. He may be there. Do you wanna go?”

“Is this that Minseok guy’s party?” Baekhyun asked interestedly. He wouldn’t mind going to a party and getting drunk. God knew he needed to get his mind off Kyungsoo’s drama and his own.

“Yeah. How about it Soo?” Jongdae asked towards their other friend.

“Jongin might be there?”

“Probably.”

*~*

Kyungsoo had agreed shortly after Jongdae had shrugged. They didn’t take too long to get ready, Kyungsoo moving back to his own room to change. Baekhyun chucked on his tightest pair of jeans that he knew made his ass look good and changed into a casual buttoned-down denim shirt. He didn’t do much to his hair, but he made sure his make-up was well done, carefully applying eyeliner and a significant amount of eyeshadow.

“Holy hell Baekhyun, you are hot,” Jongdae had whistled from the other side of the room as he changed out of his shirt. “Is Chanyeol coming?”

“Hmm?” Baekhyun hummed, cursing when he accidentally messed up with the eyeliner. “I don’t know.”

“You should invite him if he’s not. Maybe he can get Kai to come.”

Baekhyun would if he could, but didn’t have Chanyeol’s number so that was a bust. He just nodded towards Jongdae to placate the other, fixing up his eye make-up in the meantime.

By the time he was properly dressed and looking good, the two of them made their way towards Kyungsoo’s room, picking the other up and heading towards the party. Minseok lived off campus but it was still within walking distance from their university. When they reached the street, they could already hear the loud music and wild hoots coming from the direction of the house.

“Oh God,” Baekhyun mumbled, seeing a drunk couple stumble out of the house, hands not leaving each other. He turned to face his friends. “Looks like we’re gonna have a wild night, boys.”

Jongdae raised his hand towards his head like he was tipping his hat – hopefully not his fedora – towards Baekhyun. “Cheers to that.”

The house was packed on the inside, filled to the brim. There were people  _everywhere_. Every possible place one could imagine a person being was occupied. Even if Kai had turned up to the party, Baekhyun was pretty sure they weren’t going to be able to find—

“Chanyeol!” Baekhyun yelled out, moving away from his friends towards the tall boy.

Said boy turned to face Baekhyun at the call, but as soon as his eyes caught sight of the smaller, they widened, body immediately turning away. Baekhyun froze at the movement, eyes following the other as he tried to escape from Baekhyun. Luckily for him, he was tall and was able to push past people easily.

“Chanyeol!” He tried again, thinking that maybe Chanyeol hadn’t actually seen him. Why would he run away like that?

Pushing his way through the throng of bodies, Baekhyun tried to catch up to the boy. He yelled once more, almost directly behind him. This yell caused Chanyeol to flash him a look before slinking away through the gaps between people.

Chanyeol had definitely saw him that time. There was no doubt about it. Why did he run away though? Was he still upset?

Bummed, Baekhyun made his way towards the drinks table, grabbing a plastic shot glass and pouring himself a shot of vodka. He grimaced at the taste of the alcohol, face scrunching up unhappily. He didn’t enjoy having spirits straight, but they were undoubtedly the fastest way to get drunk. If Chanyeol was avoiding him, then that called for an occasion to let loose. Didn’t it?

He had another three shots, maybe even a fourth one and by then Baekhyun was really starting to feel drunk. His alcohol tolerance wasn’t the worst, but he wasn’t sure if that was because he kept drinking despite being drunk. He never really knew what his tolerance was because of that.

Nonetheless, he was feeling quite happy now. Moving towards the area that was designated for dancing, he swung his hips around in the air. There were a crowd of people dancing with him and Baekhyun allowed the deep pulsing bass to wash over his body, letting his mind run free.

“This is a great party, Minseok!” He yelled to the host who was dancing near him.

“Don’t thank me, thank Kris!” Minseok replied with a large grin. “He’s the one who set everything up and ordered the DJ!”

Baekhyun had been mostly talking about the free alcohol but as soon as Minseok mentioned Kris’ name, his mind went blank.

“Kris is here?” Baekhyun stopped dancing in the middle of the dancefloor. He swayed a little, body keyed up from the vodka, watching the world spin slightly. “Where is he?”

Minseok shrugged, still dancing. “Somewhere.”

Minseok hadn’t gone to his high school, but Baekhyun had met the other in the music building a few times through both Kyungsoo and Jongdae. He didn’t realise Minseok knew  _Kris_  though.

An urge deep within Baekhyun made him want to seek out Kris just to see the older boy—or more, man, now. He hadn’t seen Kris since high school, and the fact that the other was probably even more handsome interested him. God, he just wanted to touch Kris’ hands. He wanted Kris’ hands on  _him_.

Fuck, he was so drunk. Baekhyun shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. The world was so dizzy now, and he vaguely saw Kyungsoo in the corner talking to Kai. Oh yeah, Chanyeol was here too. Fucking prick didn’t even want to talk to Baekhyun.

Ugh, he groaned, leaning against the wall. His tolerance really wasn’t the best. He must be really drunk because he was seeing  _three_ Kris’ in front of him now.

“Baekhyun?” The Kris figures spoke in unison, reaching out to grab his shoulder. Fuck, his hands were even bigger than Baekhyun had imagined them being. “Are you okay, dude?”

“Kris, you’re so hot,” he blurted out, trying to stop his head from spinning. He wanted to see just how sexy the other was, but the world wouldn’t stop moving. Could it just stop and comply with Baekhyun for once? God damnit. “I’ve always wanted to suck your dick.”

Oops. He didn’t mean to say that. Ah, oh well. It was true. Couldn’t do anything about that now.

The Kris’ let out a melodious laugh, running their hands through his hair. He was so sexy, Baekhyun licked his lips. He wanted to lick Kris’ lips too. And his hands. And his everything.

“Do you need help? Let me get some water for you.”

He left Baekhyun against the wall to presumably get some water. Since there was no large Kris hand to hold him upright anymore, Baekhyun slid down the wall, falling on his butt. He stared out into the mess of people, his eyes landing on a pair of feet. They were pretty big feet, Baekhyun thought, but of course Kris would have big feet to match his big hands. And big dick too, probably.

“Baekhyun?”

But wait, that wasn’t Kris’ voice. The figure bent down in front of him, and no that definitely was not Kris, but Chanyeol. The other’s voice sounded worried as he squatted in front of the dazed boy, waving his hand in front of Baekhyun’s face.

“Asshole,” Baekhyun mumbled out, turning his head away from Chanyeol. He didn’t want to see the confusing boy.

“Baek… Are you okay?” Chanyeol looked worried, reaching out to touch Baekhyun’s shoulder. “Let me get some—”

“Don’t. Kris is getting me,” Baekhyun responded, staring at him through his eyelashes.

Chanyeol looked really good, hair coiffed away from his face. Baekhyun could see the way his really pretty eyes sparkled. He was wearing a tank top which showed off his large biceps and all Baekhyun wanted to do was bite the flesh.

And so he did.

But Chanyeol stopped him in mid act. “Are you trying to eat me?”

“No,” Baekhyun grumbled, annoyed at being stopped. He just wanted to nom on that flesh. Why was Chanyeol such a killjoy?

“Baekhyun,” another voice called out from above and Baekhyun tried to look up, but the whole world was spinning too much now. He couldn’t exactly concentrate on the three Kris’ that stood in front of him. Or the three glasses of water that sat in their hands.

“Kris,” Chanyeol greeted the older man. “I can take care of Baekhyun now.”

“Don’t worry about it, dude. I know you guys don’t like each other,” Kris pushed past Chanyeol and bent down to help Baekhyun swallow the water.

“No, it’s okay we’re—”

“Here you go, sweetie,” Kris cooed slightly, running his hands through Baekhyun’s hair. The younger kind of felt like a cat, and he nuzzled into Kris’ hands, liking the way his fingers felt. “Drink up, okay?”

His voice was so soft, his hands even softer. Baekhyun couldn’t help the way he arched into the touch, drinking the water more thoroughly. Chanyeol had nice hands, so, so, so nice.

Looking out through the corner of his eyes, he saw the hands sweeping through his hair. Wait a second, that wasn’t Chanyeol.  _Kris_  was the one brushing his fingers through his hair.  _Chanyeol_  was the one standing up in front of them, livid.

“Kris, get your hands out of my  _boyfriend_ ’s hair.”

The older man looked surprised by this title, looking up at Chanyeol with shock in his eyes.

“Boyfriend?”

He retracted his hands and Baekhyun whined, liking the feel of the spidery fingers rubbing against his scalp.

“Why does your boyfriend like my fingers through his hair so much?” Kris asked, standing up now. He and Chanyeol were around about the same height. “Speaking of that… Why did he say he wanted to suck my dick, then?”

Baekhyun was still so drunk but he clung onto the glass, sipping the water as well as he could, stomach starting to churn unsettlingly. He looked up at the two squabbling men in front of him, eyes narrowing when he saw Chanyeol’s fist clench angrily.

“Just let me look after him, okay?”

It seemed as though Kris complied after that because now all Baekhyun could feel were Chanyeol’s fingers sifting through his hair. This was much nicer, Baekhyun thought, nuzzling into the palm. While Kris’ hands were huge, fingers long and slim, Chanyeol’s were long and  _thick_. They felt so strong and durable. The pads of his fingers had calluses on them, like he played a sport or guitar or something.

“Why did you ignore me earlier?” Baekhyun asked dazily towards the handsome man, eyes unfocused and stomach feeling sick. “I was really sad.”

Chanyeol sent him a heartbreaking look, reaching over to grab him by the armpits. He practically carried him, holding him tight against his waist.

“Come on, let me take you home.”

“Why Chanyeol?” Baekhyun pleaded, feeling his heart drop in his chest as he saw the really sad and confusing look on the other's face. The world spun as Chanyeol held him by the waist, large palm burning into his side. “You must hate me.”

Chanyeol breathed loudly, turning to face him. “No, I don’t hate you.”

“Then what?” Baekhyun asked, leaning against his side, smushing his face into the other’s broad chest. Mm, that felt really nice. Chanyeol’s pecs were so hard against his cheek. He just wanted to bite them.

They were outside now, and Baekhyun enjoyed the fresh cool wind against his face. It made him feel a little better.

“Why Chan?” He asked again, still propped up by Chanyeol’s arm around him. Peering through his eyelashes, he gave the other a heart-stopping glance.

Chanyeol opened his mouth like he was about to respond, but that was when Baekhyun opened his own. And promptly vomited all over Chanyeol’s shoes.

“Fuck.”

Yeah, fuck was right. But at least his stomach felt a lot better.

 


End file.
